Khojki script
The Khojki script is a Brahmi-derived abugida of the Sindhi Landa family, traditionally used by the Nizari Ismaili Muslim community in South Asia to record religious literature, including gināns and other Satpanth texts, in languages such as Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Siraiki, Hindi, and occasionally Arabic and Persian.[1][2] It features 43 primary characters, comprising independent vowels and consonants with an inherent a sound, along with dependent vowel diacritics, a virāma for consonant clusters, a nukta for additional sounds, and shadda for gemination, written from left to right without inherent standardization.[2][1] Originating in the Sindh region of present-day Pakistan, likely during the 14th to 15th centuries amid the Khoja community's syncretic transition from Hindu mercantile roots to Ismaili Islam under missionary influences like Pir Sadr al-Din, the script evolved from earlier forms such as Lohanaki to encode a unique blend of Islamic and Hindu devotional elements in Satpanth literature.[3][1][4] Earliest surviving manuscripts date to the mid-18th century, such as one from 1736 CE, though references suggest compositions as early as the 15th century; it spread to Gujarat, Punjab, and beyond through the Ismaili diaspora, with printing introduced in Bombay in the early 20th century (1903) using metal fonts developed by figures like Laljibhai Devraj.[4][1][3] The script's name, traditionally "Khwajah Sindhi" or simply "Sindhi" within the community, was popularized as "Khojki" in modern scholarship by Wladimir Ivanow in 1933, reflecting its association with the Khoja ("master") people.[4][3] Khojki flourished for liturgical and devotional purposes among Nizari Ismailis in regions including Pakistan, India, and later diaspora communities in Canada, the UK, East Africa, and elsewhere, adapting to write mystic poetry by authors like Shah Abd al-Latif Bhitai and bhakti poets such as Kabir.[1][4] Its glyphs underwent phonetic shifts in the 1930s due to sound changes in spoken languages, and it was encoded in Unicode (U+11200–U+1124F) in 2014 to preserve digital access.[1][5] Usage declined sharply in the 20th century following the 1866 Aga Khan Case, which formalized Ismaili identity and encouraged shifts to Gujarati or Arabic scripts amid colonial influences, Islamization, and migration, though primers persist in Pakistan and revival efforts continue among global Ismailis.[3][1]History
Origins
The Khojki script derives its name from the Persian word khoja (خواجه), meaning "master" or "lord," which was applied to the Khoja community of Nizari Ismaili Muslims, reflecting their social status as merchants and converts from the Hindu Lohana caste.[6] This etymology underscores the script's ties to the community's identity, emerging in a context of cultural synthesis in Sindh, where interactions between Islam and Hinduism shaped religious and mercantile practices.[3] As a Brahmi-derived script from the Sindhi branch of the Landa family of mercantile writing systems, Khojki likely evolved from earlier local scripts such as Lohanaki or Sharada-related forms, adapted for use in Sindh (modern-day southern Pakistan) during the 14th to 15th centuries amid Ismaili missionary activities.[6] The region's history of cultural conflicts between incoming Islamic influences and indigenous Hindu traditions provided the backdrop for its development, as Nizari Ismaili pirs sought to propagate their faith among local populations while preserving esoteric knowledge.[3] According to Nizari Ismaili tradition, the script was devised by Pir Sadr al-Din (c. 1300–1416 CE), a key missionary who converted Lohana traders to Ismailism and authored devotional works, though historical evidence for this attribution is lacking and may stem from later 19th-century accounts; he possibly modified existing Landa variants to create a distinct system known within the community as Chaali Akhri ("forty-letter alphabet").[4] This attribution highlights its role in fostering the Satpanth tradition, a syncretic Ismaili-Hindu path. Recent scholarship identifies the earliest dated Khojki manuscripts from the mid-15th century, such as those from 1448 CE and 1451 CE.[4] The earliest known appearances of Khojki occur in 15th- and 16th-century manuscripts, though oral traditions and missionary efforts suggest its formative use by the mid-15th century for recording ginans—devotional hymns blending mystical, didactic, and cosmological themes.[1][4] Initially employed to transcribe these texts in a mixture of Sindhi, Gujarati, and Persian (along with influences from Punjabi and Hindi), the script served to safeguard sacred literature accessible only to initiated community members, ensuring continuity of Ismaili teachings in a potentially hostile environment.[7] Collections such as those at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London preserve examples from this period, confirming Khojki's emergence as a tool for religious secrecy and cultural preservation in Sindh.[6]Development and Evolution
The Khojki script evolved from the Landa family of scripts, particularly the Lohāṇākī variety used by mercantile communities in Sindh, with refinements beginning in the 15th century and continuing through the 16th and 17th centuries, transitioning from a rudimentary commercial tool to a more formalized system for religious literature.[8] Traditional attributions credit figures like Pir Sadr al-Din with introducing medial vowel marks (lakand) and word-boundary punctuation to improve readability for devotional texts, though such refinements lack direct historical corroboration.[9][4] By the early 18th century, Khojki had matured as a distinct script, as evidenced by dated manuscripts such as one from 1737 containing the Das Avatar ginan.[9] Adaptations in Khojki included a cursive style written from left to right, facilitating fluid manuscript production while accommodating Arabic and Persian loanwords common in Ismaili religious texts through the addition of nukta diacritics for sounds like qa and kha.[8] These modifications allowed the script to represent a blend of Indic and Perso-Arabic elements, with dependent vowel signs (such as ◌𑈭 for short i) and superscripts (like / for short vowels) addressing phonetic nuances in ginans.[8] Regional variations also arose, with Sindhi forms retaining sharper, more angular glyphs suited to local dialects, while Gujarati influences introduced rounded features and additional diacritics for vowel lengths, reflecting the script's spread across the Indian subcontinent.[8] During the 18th and 19th centuries, Khojki's usage expanded amid British colonial rule in India, as the script became integral to preserving Ismaili identity through proliferating manuscripts of ginans and hymns in regions like Sindh, Gujarat, and Punjab.[9] This period saw increased production of religious literature, with the script adapting orthographically to handle complex theological concepts, such as in the Das Avatar ginan, where early manuscripts like the 1737 Kx version demonstrated limitations like conflating consonants (e.g., d, r, n into one glyph) and inconsistent vowel representation, prompting later refinements for clarity.[9] The transition to print further propelled its evolution, with the first Khojki books lithographically printed in Bombay around 1896, followed by metal type editions from 1903 onward by Laljibhai Devraj at the Khoja Sindhi Printing Press, enabling wider dissemination of texts like ginan collections.[8][3]Decline and Preservation
The decline of the Khojki script began in the late 19th century, accelerated by the increasing adoption of more practical scripts such as Urdu, Gujarati, and Roman among the Khoja community, driven by colonial education policies that emphasized standardized languages for administration and schooling under British rule.[3] These policies, coupled with the Islamization of Khoja identity following the 1866 Aga Khan Case, which fractured community ties and promoted alignment with broader Muslim literary traditions, led to a sharp reduction in Khojki's use for new compositions.[3] By the early 20th century, printing presses in Bombay ceased producing texts in Khojki, further marginalizing the script as Gujarati gained prominence in Gujarat and Perso-Arabic variants in Sindh.[3] The 1947 Partition of India profoundly impacted Khojki's survival, as it scattered Khoja communities across newly formed nations, disrupting traditional networks and hastening the shift to Devanagari or Perso-Arabic scripts for religious and cultural continuity in diaspora settings.[3] This geopolitical upheaval, combined with ongoing modernization, rendered Khojki largely obsolete as a living script by the mid-20th century, confining its application to a dwindling number of ritual and archival contexts. Preservation efforts emerged in the 1930s and 1940s through the pioneering work of scholar Wladimir Ivanow, who meticulously cataloged Khojki manuscripts within Ismaili collections, documenting their linguistic and historical significance to safeguard them from loss.[10] Institutions supported by the Aga Khan, including early archival initiatives, played a crucial role in the mid-20th century by systematically collecting and protecting these texts, averting their complete disappearance amid community migrations and cultural shifts.[3] Today, an estimated several hundred Khojki manuscripts survive, primarily housed in specialized libraries such as the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, which maintains one of the world's largest collections of these artifacts for scholarly access and study.[11]Script Description
Characteristics
The Khojki script is an abugida derived from the Brahmi family, specifically the Landa branch, in which consonants carry an inherent vowel sound, typically /a/, that can be modified or suppressed using dependent vowel signs known as matras.[8] It consists of 36 consonant letters and 8 independent vowel letters, forming the core set for writing.[8] These features align with broader Indic script traditions, enabling efficient representation of syllabic structures in religious and literary texts.[6] Matras in Khojki are attached above, below, or to the right of base consonant forms to indicate non-inherent vowels, while the virama diacritic eliminates the inherent vowel for consonant clusters.[8] Nasalization is denoted by an anusvara mark, resembling a dot positioned to the right or above the character, facilitating phonetic nuances in Ismaili ginans and other compositions.[6] For complex consonant combinations, the script employs atomic ligatures rather than stacked forms, with examples including forms for kṣa and jña to streamline writing without altering baseline alignment.[8] The script flows left-to-right in horizontal lines, following standard Brahmic directional conventions, and lacks cursive joining rules akin to those in Perso-Arabic systems, though it incorporates a nukta diacritic borrowed from Perso-Arabic to represent non-native sounds.[12] Independent full vowel forms are used prominently for clarity, particularly in rhythmic religious chanting, distinguishing them from abbreviated matras.[6] Orthographic conventions include a shadda mark above consonants to indicate gemination for elongated sounds, and distinct characters for aspirated consonants such as kha and gha, reflecting adaptations unique to Khojki's evolution.[8] In manuscript production, Khojki glyphs exhibit variations in height and baseline positioning to enhance aesthetic decoration, often rendered in black ink on paper with subtle flourishes for visual harmony in sacred volumes.[6] These typographic flexibilities, combined with Indian script influences like virama usage, underscore the script's balance between functionality and ornamental tradition.[8]Characters and Glyphs
The Khojki script employs an abugida system with 36 consonant letters, each carrying an inherent vowel sound /a/, and eight independent vowel letters. These consonants are derived from earlier Indic scripts like Sharada and Landa, adapted for the phonetic needs of Sindhi and related languages used in religious literature. The consonant inventory includes standard velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial, and semivowel forms, along with aspirated, breathy-voiced, and implosive variants to accommodate historical phonetic shifts in the Nizari Ismaili community's dialects. For example, the letter for /k/ is represented as 𑈈 (U+11208, KHOJKI LETTER KA), and for /gʱ/ as 𑈉 (U+11209, KHOJKI LETTER GHA).[8]| Consonant Category | Examples (Unicode and Description) |
|---|---|
| Velars | 𑈈 KA (/k/), 𑈉 GHA (/gʱ/), 𑈊 NGA (/ŋ/) |
| Palatals | 𑈋 CA (/tʃ/), 𑈌 JA (/dʒ/), 𑈍 NYA (/ɲ/) |
| Retroflex | 𑈎 ṬA (/ʈ/), 𑈏 ḌA (/ɖ/), 𑈐 ṆA (/ɳ/) |
| Dentals | 𑈑 TA (/t̪/), DA (/d̪/), 𑈓 NA (/n̪/) |
| Labials | 𑈔 PA (/p/), 𑈕 BHA (/bʱ/), 𑈖 MA (/m/) |
| Semivowels and Others | 𑈗 YA (/j/), 𑈘 RA (/ɾ/), 𑈙 LA (/l/), 𑈚 VA (/ʋ/), 𑈛 ŚA (/ʃ/), 𑈜 HA (/ɦ/) (full set spans U+11208 to U+1122B, including variants like implosive 𑈡 ḌA (U+11221))[8][1] |