Type Abugida Time period 1918-Present ISO 15924 Gonm, 313 | Languages Gondi Direction Left-to-right | |
Gondi has typically been written in Devanagari script or Telugu script, but native scripts are in existence. A Gond by the name of Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram designed a Brahmi-based script in 1918, and very recently, a native script that dates up to 1750 has been discovered by a group of researchers from the University of Hyderabad.
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Nonetheless, most Gonds are illiterate and do not use any script. The Gunjala Gondi Lipi has witnessed a surge in prominence, and well-supported efforts are being undertaken in villages of northern Andhra Pradesh to widen its usage.
Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram Script
In 1918, Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram, a Gond from Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh, designed a script for Gondi based on Brahmi characters found in other descendant Indian scripts. However, this script is not widely used, even though a few publications have been made available by his followers and supporters.
The Masaram Gondi script has been accepted for inclusion in a future version of Unicode.
Gunjala Gondi Lipi
This script is the subject of ongoing linguistic and historical research. Discovered manuscripts have been dated up to 1750, and discuss information from as early as the 6th-7th centuries. Much of the information reveals independence initiatives by the Gond Rajas and encounters with the British. Also, the names of the days of the week, the months, the Gond festivals have been discovered in this Gondi script.
The Gunjala Gondi script was approved in November 2015 for a future version of the Unicode Standard.