Kruti Dev Typing Rules: Matras, Reph, Half Letters and Conjuncts

Rule 1: the ि sign comes first

The short-i sign is drawn on the left of its consonant, so on the typewriter it is typed first: f then the consonant. कि is fd, हिंदी is fganh. With a half letter the ि goes before the whole cluster, because it is drawn before all of it. Unicode stores the same sign after the consonant, which is why converting Kruti Dev is more than a letter swap.

Rule 2: the reph comes last

The reph - the small र् hook on top of a letter, as in कर्म or धर्म - is typed after the syllable it sits on, with Z: कर्म is deZ, धर्म is /keZ. If the syllable has a vowel sign, the reph still comes after it.

Rule 3: letters without a key are a half form plus ा

Several full letters have no key of their own. They are typed as their half form followed by k, the ा stroke: भ is Hk, ध is /k, श is 'k. On the typewriter the vertical stroke was the same piece of metal as the ा sign, and Kruti Dev keeps that.

Rule 4: half letters for conjuncts

To join two consonants, type the half form of the first and then the second: क्य is D;, and क्या is D;k. Many half forms are on Shift - D is क्, E is म् - and the rest are the letter without its ा stroke. Where a letter has no half form, such as ड or ट, use the halant key (~) after it.

Rule 5: rakar, and the conjuncts with their own keys

The small stroke of र under a consonant, as in प्र or क्र, is z, typed after the consonant: प्र is iz. Four common conjuncts are drawn as single shapes and have keys of their own or short sequences: क्ष ({k), त्र (=), ज्ञ (K) and श्र (J). Learn them as letters, not as combinations.

Signs worth learning early

• Nukta (the dot under ड़, ज़, फ़) is +, typed after the letter: ड़ is M+.
• Anusvara (ं) is a, typed after the syllable: गंगा is xaxk.
• Visarga (ः) is %: दुःख is nq%[k.
• The full stop । is A (Shift + a).
• Chandrabindu (ँ) has no key on a normal keyboard. Hold Alt and type 0161 on the number pad: चाँद is pk¡n.

Mistakes almost everyone makes

• Typing ि after the consonant, the way it is spoken. The sign then lands on the next letter.
• Typing the reph before the syllable. In Kruti Dev it always comes last: कार्य is dk;Z.
• Using the halant key where a half-letter key exists. D gives a proper half क्, while d~ gives क with a visible halant, which looks wrong in print.
• Leaving Caps Lock on. Every capital is a different Hindi letter.

Why these rules matter when converting

Unicode stores Hindi in the order it is spoken: consonant, then vowel sign, and the reph as a र with a halant before its syllable. A Kruti Dev to Unicode converter has to move every ि and every reph to its Unicode position, and rebuild each two-key letter as one character. The converters on this site do exactly that, and the typing tutor uses the same rules to check your keystrokes - so what the tutor teaches and what the converters read are the same thing.

Practising them

The matra and conjunct chart lists twenty signs and conjuncts with their exact keys, and prints on one page. The typing tutor drills them in lessons 6 to 8. And the Remington Hindi keyboard lets you type any word and see its Unicode immediately.