Laṇḍā scripts


The Lahṇḍā scripts, meaning "going down", is a Punjabi word used to refer to writing systems used in Punjab and nearby parts of North India. It is distinct from the Lahnda language, which used to be called Western Punjabi.
Laṇḍā is a script that evolved from the Śāradā during the 10th century. It was widely used in the northern and north-western part of India in the area comprising Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir and some parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was used to write Punjabi, Hindustani, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Kashmiri, Pashto, and various Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari.

Variants

There are at least ten ancient scripts that were classified as Laṇḍā scripts. They were often used as the scripts of the Punjab region 5 of them have enough information to be supported in Unicode.
  1. Gurmukhī evolved from Laṇḍā and the only major Landa script in modern day usage.
  2. Khojkī, an script of the Isma'ili Khoja community, is within the Sindhi branch of the Landa family of scripts.
  3. Mahājanī, a script previously used for the Punjabi and Mārwāṛī, is related to Laṇḍā.
  4. Khudabadi, formerly used for Sindhi, is a Laṇḍā-based script.
  5. Multani, former writing system of Saraiki, is a Laṇḍā-based script.