Takri

The Takri script (sometimes called Tankri) is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. It is closely related to, and derived from, the Sharada script employed by Kashmiri. It is also related to the Gurmukhī script used to write Punjabi.

Until the late 1940s, Takri was the official script for writing the Dogri language in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There are some records of using Takri script in the history of Nepali (Khas Kura). Besides, Takri has historically been used by a number of Western Pahari, Garhwali and Dardic languages in the Western Himalayas, such as Gaddi or Gaddki (the language of the Gaddi ethnic group), Kashtwari (the dialect centered on the Kashtwar or Kishtwar region of Jammu and Kashmir) and Chamiyali (the language of the Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh).

Takri used to be the most prevalent script for business records and communication in various parts of Himachal Pradesh including Chintpurni, Una, Kangra, Bilaspur, and Hamirpur regions. The aged businessmen can still be found using Takri in these areas, but newer generation has now shifted to Devanagari and even English (Roman). This shift can be traced to the period ranging from 1950s to 1980s.