Kaithi

Kaithi (कैथी), also called "Kayathi" or "Kayasthi", is the name of a historical script used widely in parts of North India, primarily in the former North-Western Provinces & Oudh (present-day Uttar Pradesh) and Bihar. It was used to write legal, administrative, and private records. A proposal to encode the Kaithi script in the Unicode standard is currently being reviewed by the Unicode Technical Committee.

Etymology

Kaithi script derives its name from the word Kayastha, one of the social groups of North India. The Kayastha people were closely associated with the princely courts and colonial governments of North India, and were traditionally employed by them to write and maintain various records including records of revenue transactions; creation of legal documents and title deeds; general correspondence; and proceedings of the royal courts and related bodies. The script used by them acquired the name Kaithi.

History

Kaithi is an old script, and its history is traceable to at least 16th century. It was widely used during the period of the Mughal Empire. In 1880s, during the British Raj, the script was recognized as the official script of the law courts of Bihar. Although in general Kaithi was much more widely used than Nagari in some areas, it lost to the latter in the power struggle over officially-reccognized scripts.