Volume 12, Number 13, July 2022

Towards Modi Script Preservation: Tools for Digitization

  Authors

Kishor Patil, Neha Gupta, Damodar M and Ajai Kumar, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), India

  Abstract

Modi (मोडी, modī ̣) is a heritage script belonging to Brahmi family, which is used mainly for writing Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in western and central India, mostly in the state of Maharashtra. “Modi-manuscript "written from the past, reveals the history of the Maratha Empire from its inception under Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj; to the creation of movable metal type when Modi was slowly relegated to an inferior position, unfolds perspectives and reflects the social, political and cultural sense of his time." Today it is very important for historians, researchers and students to understand this script and use it for historical heritage. Other regional languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani and Telugu were also using Modi. This paper presents our contribution in helping the community for preserving the script, by way of using various tools, which will facilitate the collection, analysis, and digitization of the Modi script.

  Keywords

Language preservation, language development, Modi, Language Analysis, Heritage script.