REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003

Hindi

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 1972 (II/11) and amended in 1977 (III/12), based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma. The tables and their corrections were published in volume II of the conference reports (Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. London, 10-31 May 1972. Vol. II. Technical papers. United Nations. New York 1974, pp. 119-131; Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Athens, 17 August - 7 September 1977. Vol. II, Technical papers, pp. 393 etc.).

There is no evidence of the use of the system either in India or in international cartographic products. It was stated in 1987 that the appropriate resolution had not been implemented in India and the Hunterian system was still in use in large-scale mapping (Fifth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Montreal, 18-31 August 1987. Vol. I. Report of the Conference, p. 30.).

Hindi uses the alphasyllabic script Devanāgarī whereby each character represents a syllable rather than one sound. Vowels and diphthongs are marked in two ways: as independent characters (used syllable-initially) and in an abbreviated form, to denote vowels after consonants. The romanization table is unambiguous but the user would have to recognize many ligatures not given in the original table (only three are given). The system is mostly reversible but there may exist some ambiguities in the romanization of vowels (independent vs. abbreviated characters) and consonants (ligatures vs. character sequences).

Romanization

In the romanization system below the table of ligatures has been added.

I. Independent vowel characters

1 a
2 ā
3 i
4 ī
5 u
6 ū
7
8 ॠृ
9
10 e
11 ai
12 o
13 au

II. Abbreviated vowel characters (क stands for any consonant character)

1 a
2 का āA
3 कि i
4 की ī
5 कु uB
6 कू ū B
7 कृ B
8 के e
9 कै ai
10 को o
11 कौ au

III. Other symbols (अ stands for any vowel character in lines 1-3, क stands for any consonant character in line 4)

1 अं
2 अँ
3 अः
4 क् (A)

IV. Consonant characters

1 kaA
2 khaA
3 gaA
4 gha
5 ṅa
6 cha
7 chha
8 jaA
9 jha
10 ña
11 ṭa
12 ṭha
13 ḍaA
14 ḍhaA
15 ṇa
16 ta
17 tha
18 da
19 dha
20 na
21 pa
22 phaA
23 ba
24 bha
25 ma
26 ya
27 ra
28 la
29 va
30 sha
31 ṣha
32 sa
33 ha

V. Ligatures

Adscript form:

Examples
र्त r- र्त rta, र्द्व rdva

Other ligatures (the list is not complete)

क्कक्खक्तक्त्व क्यक्रक्लक्व क्षक्ष्णक्ष्मक्ष्य क्ष्व
kka kkha kta ktva kya kra kla kva kṣha kṣhṇa kṣhma kṣhyakṣhva
क्सख्यख़शग्द ग्धग्नग्भग्म ग्यग्रग्लघ्न घ्य
ksa khya ḳhsha gda gdha gna gbha gma gya gra gla ghna ghya
घ्रङ्कङ्खङ्ग ङ्घच्चच्छच्छ्र च्यच्रज्जज्झ ज्ञ
ghra ṅka ṅkha ṅga ṅgha chcha chchha chchhra chya chra jja jjha jña
ज्यज्रज्वञ्च ञ्छञ्जट्ट ट्ठठ्ठड्ड ड्ढढ्ढण्ट
jya jra jva ñcha ñchha ñja ṭṭa ṭṭha ṭhṭha ḍḍa ḍḍha ḍhḍha ṇṭa
ण्ठण्डण्य त्कत्तत्त्यत्त्व त्थत्नत्पत्म त्म्यत्य
ṇṭha ṇḍa ṇya tka tta ttya ttva ttha tna tpa tma tmya tya
त्रत्र्यत्वत्स त्स्नत्स्यथ्यथ्र द्गद्दद्धद्भ द्म
tra trya tva tsa tsna tsya thya thra dga dda ddha dbha dma
द्यद्रद्वध्न ध्मध्यध्रध्व न्तन्त्यन्त्रन्थ न्द
dya dra dva dhna dhma dhya dhra dhva nta ntya ntra ntha nda
न्द्रन्धन्ध्यन्ध्र न्नन्मन्यन्र न्वन्सन्हप्त प्त्य
ndra ndha ndhya ndhra nna nma nya nra nva nsa nha pta ptya
प्नप्यप्रप्ल प्सफ्यफ्लब्द ब्नब्यब्रभ्य भ्र
pna pya pra pla psa phya phla bda bna bya bra bhya bhra
म्नम्बम्भम्म म्यम्रम्लम्व म्हय्यय्रल्क ल्प
mna mba mbha mma mya mra mla mva mha yya yra lka lpa
ल्मल्यल्लल्व ल्सव्यव्रश्च श्च्यश्छश्नश्य श्र
lma lya lla lva lsa vya vra shcha shchya shchha shna shya shra
श्लश्वष्क ष्क्रष्टष्ट्र ष्ठष्णष्प ष्प्रष्मष्य ष्व
shla shva ṣhka ṣhkra ṣhṭa ṣhṭra ṣhṭha ṣhṇa ṣhpa ṣhpra ṣhma ṣhya ṣhva
स्कस्खस्तस्त्र स्थस्नस्पस्फ स्मस्म्यस्यस्र स्व
ska skha sta stra stha sna spa spha sma smya sya sra sva
ह्नह्मह्यह्र ह्लह्व
hna hma hya hra hla hva

Notes

  1. It is recommended that the vowel अ (a) should always be romanized except when it ends a name. If a name ends with a consonant, the consonant should carry a sub-macron. Such cases, however, will be very rare. For example, कानपुर Kānapur (not Kānapura), जगत् Jagaṯ.
  2. If each letter of a digraph or any two parts of a trigraph has a distinct independent sound then it should be indicated by a hyphen, thus d-h.

Other systems of romanization

The Hunterian system is the actually used national system of romanization in India.

UN Hunterian
ā = ā, aA
= d
ḍh = dh
ī = ī, iA
= n, m
= ng
= n
ñ = ny
sh = s, sh
ṣh = sh
= t
ṭh = th
v = w, vB

The transliteration standard for Indian languages ISO 15919: 2001 provides different transliteration equivalents to the characters of the Indian languages. These are:

UN ISO
ă = ĕ
ā̆ = ŏ
ch = c
chh = ch
e = ē, eA
ĕ = e
= ġ
= ḥ, ḵB
= yC
ḳh = ḵẖ
= l̥
l̤̄ = l̥̄
= ḻ B
= m̐, ˜, n̆E
o = ō, oA
ŏ = o
= ṛ
= r̥
ṝ = r̥̄
sh = ś
ṣh = ṣ
ṭ̈ = ṯ D
y = ẏ CF
= yF