Karani or Chhata was a handwrittencursivewriting system historically used to write the Odia language[2][3][4] primarily for court, land, temple and accounting records, and other administrative purposes.[5] Karani was quite different from[6] the printed form, the Odia script, which replaced it.[5] Karani gradually became unintelligible to the readers of the latter.[7] The writers historically belonged to the Karan caste group who were designated to use Karani.[5] The script was used in the Odia-speaking regions during British Raj including the Orissa Tributary States. Both the names "karani" and "karana" are derived from "karani", a metal stylus used for writing on palm leaf.[8][9] Historical records from mid-eighteenth century were written in this script.[10] Karani was written both on palm leaves and paper.
History
Karani is often explained as "karaninabaja" or "chhata", a "running" script with mistakes introduced by the Karanas, making it less standard. The script also did not use spaces between words and lacked punctuations, both allowing the writers to write fast, but making it hard to decipher later.[11]
Influence on modern Odia script
Karani diacritic remnant in Odia script
Vowel Letter
Diacritic forms
For the vowel ଇ (short i), the standard Odia diacritic form is ି. Eg- For consonant କ (ka) - କି (ki) But for these consonants - ଖ (kha), ଥ (tha), ଧ (dha), the equivalent ଇ diacritic from Karani script is also used.
^Tanabe, Akio (December 2005). "The system of entitlements in eighteenth-century khurda, Orissa: Reconsidering 'caste' and 'community' in late pre-colonial India". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 28 (3): 345–385. doi:10.1080/00856400500337768.
^Shankar, B., Mishra, P., Sagnika, S., Pattanaik, A. "Engaging with an Indian Epic: A Digital Approach". International Journal of Computer Applications. 975: 8887.
