The transliteration used in this article follows the popular [[IAST]] conventions. The [[ITRANS]] [http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/#itransencoding] is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanāgarī into [[ASCII]] that is widely used on [[Usenet]]. In ITRANS, the word ''Devanāgarī'' is written as "devanaagarii".
== उत्त्पत्ति ==
<!-- [[Image:Rigveda MS2097.jpg|thumb|340px|[[Rigveda]] manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century)]] -->
Devanāgarī emerged around [[1200]] AD out of the [[Siddham]] script, gradually replacing the earlier, closely related [[Sharada script]] (which remained in parallel use in [[Kashmir]]). Both are immediate descendants of the [[Gupta script]], ultimately deriving from the [[Brahmi|Brāhmī]] script attested from the [[3rd century BC]]; Nāgarī appeared in approx. the [[8th century]] as an eastern variant of the [[Gupta script]], contemporary to [[Sharada]], its western variant. The descendants of Brahmi form the [[Brahmic family]], including the alphabets employed for many other South and South-East Asian languages.
=== नामाकरण ===
{{alphabet}}
[[Sanskrit]] ''nāgarī'' is the feminine of ''nāgara'' "urban(e)", an adjectival [[vrddhi]] derivative from ''nagara'' "city"; the feminine form is used because of its original application to qualify the feminine noun ''lipi'' "script" ("urban(e) script", i.e. the script of the cultured). There were several varieties in use, one of which was distinguished by affixing ''[[Deva (Hinduism)|deva]]'' "deity" to form a [[tatpurusha]] compound meaning the "urban(e) [script] of the deities (= gods)", i.e. "divine urban(e) [script]". However, the widespread use of "Devanāgarī" is a relatively recent phenomenon; well into the twentieth century, and even today, simply "Nāgari" was also in use for this same script. The rapid spread of the usage of "Devanāgarī" seems also to be connected with the almost exclusive use of this script in colonial times to publish works in Sanskrit, even though traditionally nearly all indigenous scripts have actually been employed for this language. This has led to the establishment of such a close connection between the script and Sanskrit that it is, erroneously, widely regarded as "the Sanskrit script" today.
Interpreted by [[popular etymology]] to refer to a "City of the Gods", the name in certain [[Yoga|Yogic]] traditions{{fact}}<!-- which ones?--> was taken to refer to the body of the individual. The philosophy behind this is that when one [[meditation|meditates]] on the specific [[sound]]s of the Devanagari alphabet, the written forms appear spontaneously in the mind.
