Script - Nandinagari
Nandinagari is a historical script used primarily in southern India, particularly in the Karnataka and Andhra regions, from around the 8th to the 19th century. It was employed for writing Sanskrit and Kannada, often in temple inscriptions, copper plates, and manuscripts, and is closely related to other southern Brahmic scripts like Grantha and Telugu-Kannada. Its glyph forms are rounded and cursive, with distinct vowel and consonant signs that show clear evolution from earlier Brahmi. In character encoding, Nandinagari represents the set of letters, numerals, and diacritical marks that allow digital text to preserve and render this heritage script, enabling scholarly study and archival of ancient documents. It includes its own independent vowel signs, consonant conjuncts, and punctuation, tailored for accurate transliteration and faithful reproduction of original texts.