Sourashtram
Our words.
Our own script.
A living language, at your fingertips. Explore the script, make a little space to write, and carry it forward.
One sentence. Three different sounds.
Gai kaai khaai?
What does the cow eat?
Gai means cow. Kaai means what. Khaai means eat. Similar letters, distinct sounds, and three different meanings.
- Gai
- gacow
- kaai
- kawhat
- khaai
- khaeat
One family. Four distinct sounds.
Like Hindi, Sourashtra has separate letters for ka, kha, ga and gha. This sentence brings three of them to life.
- ka
- kha
- ga
- gha
Meet the letters
A shape for every sound.
Explore the letters and their reading guides. Choose characters here, then see your writing below.
Read the sound below each letter. Choose a letter to add it to the writing area below.
Vowels
Consonants
Signs & vowel marks
Digits
How to read the sound guides
Double vowels mean a longer sound: a / aa, i / ii, u / uu, e / ee and o / oo. For example, ii sounds like ee in see, and uu like oo in food.
ch is like ch in chair. An added h marks a puff of breath, as in kha and chha. tt, dd, nn and ll mark sounds made with the tongue curled back; they do not mean holding the consonant longer.
These are reading guides, not exact phonetic transcriptions. ru, ruu, lru and lruu stand for the vocalic r and l sounds and are approximate spellings. Signs change the preceding letter; the pure consonant mark removes its built-in vowel.
Character reference: Unicode Saurashtra chart ↗ · English and Tamil reading reference ↗
The script studio
Make it your own.
Type or paste text below. You can also choose letters from the chart above to insert at the cursor.
Your writing stays in this browser. It is not saved when you leave.
Keep learning
A little practice.
A lasting connection.
The studio uses Unicode text and Noto Sans Saurashtra. The classic font files below still work with older documents.
Sourashtra has its own script, which is now part of the Unicode standard. Modern phones and computers can display it with fonts such as Noto Sans Saurashtra: ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬ
Learn to write
- How to write in SourashtramBy Sureshkumar Markandey · PDF, 434 KBDownload
- Keyboard layout for the Suresh and Kuber fontsPDF, 53 KBDownload
- Sourashtra PadamalaWritten by Shri. Thada Subramanian, published by the Sriman Nayagi Swamigal Resurgent Movement · PDF, 507 KBDownload
Sourashtra fonts
These classic TrueType fonts work on Windows and macOS. Download the file, then double-click it to install.
Tamil fonts
- Mylai PlainBy Dr. Kalyanasundaram, one of the earliest Tamil fonts on the web · TrueTypeDownload
- Mylai SriTrueTypeDownload
- JananiTrueTypeDownload
- SriTrueTypeDownload
English-Sourashtra dictionary (Akaaradi). The palkar.org dictionary, made possible by Sri. Obula (Upamanyu) S. Subramanian and Sri. K.V. Pathy, is being restored and will return here soon.