Picto-Phonetic Script

Design Resource

History of Devanagari Letterforms

Evolutionary of Devnagri Typeface

Picto-Phonetic Script

Some ascetics in pre-found meditation saw 50 petals. These included the six ‘Chakras’ of human body namely:-

• Muladhar (4)
• Swadhisthan (6)
• Nabhi (10)
• Anahat (12)
• Vishudhya (16)
• Aadnya (2)

They visualized these Chakras in form of pictures and tried to draw them in the soil on the land. They also tried to co-relate the different sounds produced by them to a particular petal of the Chakras. After analyzing which petals of Chakras carries which sound, they finalized the form (picture) of that particular sound. These were called ‘Varnakshare’ (Picto-phonetic letters).

The early writings are represented by painted symbols. These symbols were phonetic representations of sound letters. The Red Indians engraved and painted ideograms in rock shelters. The complicated designs often painted in the rock shelters of Vindhyan Sandstone hills of India are the first attempts to express the emotional enchanted pre-historic hunters and dancers. . These were the primary visual communications of pre-historic tribal groups which gradually evolved into the symbolic picto-phonetic script.

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History of Devanagari Letterforms