Fundamentals of the Hindi Alphabet: Vowels, Consonants & Barakhadi

Written by Sabina Maharjan and published by Sambhu Raj Singh on 25 March 2026.

Overview of the Devanagari Script

Hindi is written in Devanagari (देवनागरी), one of the most widely used writing systems in the world. Devanagari is employed by over 120 languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Nepali, and Maithili.^[1]

According to the 2011 Census of India, Hindi is spoken by more than 528 million people as a first language, making it one of the most spoken languages on Earth.^[3]

Unlike the Latin alphabet, Devanagari is classified as an abugida (also called an alphasyllabary). This means:

• Each consonant carries an inherent short "a" (अ), so क reads as "ka", not just "k".
• Vowels that follow a consonant are written as diacritics (matras) attached to the consonant, not as standalone letters, e.g. क + ी = की (kī).
• The script is written left to right.
• Each character hangs from a horizontal stroke called the shirorekha (शिरोरेखा, "head line"), which gives Devanagari its distinctive top-bar appearance.

The standard Hindi alphabet taught in schools contains 11 vowels and 33 consonants, plus a set of special symbols that modify the sounds of adjacent characters.^[2]

Vowels: Swar (स्वर)

Vowels in Hindi are called swar (स्वर). Each vowel exists in two forms: an independent form, used when the vowel stands alone or begins a syllable, and a dependent form (matra), used when it follows a consonant. The independent forms are shown in the table below.

Vowel Diacritics: Matras (मात्रा)

When a vowel follows a consonant inside a word, its independent form is replaced by a smaller symbol written around the consonant. This attached symbol is called a matra (मात्रा).

The vowel अ (the inherent "a") is the only exception: it produces no visible matra. It is understood to be present unless cancelled by a halant (see Special Symbols).

The table below shows each matra alongside an example using the consonant क (ka):

Notice that the इ (i) matra is written before the consonant it modifies, to the left, even though it is pronounced after it. This is one of Devanagari's features that new learners must internalise early on.

Consonants: Vyanjan (व्यंजन)

Hindi has 33 primary consonants, called vyanjan (व्यंजन). Every consonant carries the inherent vowel अ, so "क" is read as "ka," not simply "k." When you write only "क" in isolation, the अ is implied.

The 33 consonants are not listed randomly. They follow a phonetic order called the varnamala (वर्णमाला, "garland of letters"), organised by where and how each sound is produced in the mouth.

The Five Phonetic Groups (Panchavarga / पंचवर्ग)

The first 25 consonants are arranged into five groups of five, known as the panchavarga (five groups). Each group shares a common place of articulation. Within each group, the five positions follow a fixed pattern:^[2]

1. Unaspirated voiceless (अल्पप्राण अघोष): soft, no burst of air
2. Aspirated voiceless (महाप्राण अघोष): with a strong puff of air
3. Unaspirated voiced (अल्पप्राण घोष): voiced, no burst of air
4. Aspirated voiced (महाप्राण घोष): voiced, with a puff of air
5. Nasal (अनुनासिक): air passes through the nose

The retroflex group (Murdhanya) is one of the features that distinguishes Hindi from European languages. Retroflex sounds (ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण) are produced with the tongue tip curled upward to touch the roof of the mouth, creating a distinctly "thick" or "deep" sound compared to their dental equivalents त, थ, द, ध, न.

Approximants, Sibilants & Aspirate

After the five vargas, the remaining eight consonants are divided into two categories:

Hindi has three sibilants: श (a palatal "sh"), ष (a retroflex "sh," common in Sanskrit loanwords), and स (a dental "s"). In everyday spoken Hindi, श and ष are often pronounced identically as "sh."

Additional Consonants

A small set of consonants with a dot (nukta / नुक्ता) beneath them represent sounds borrowed from Arabic, Persian, and English that do not exist natively in Sanskrit-derived Hindi:

Special Symbols

Beyond vowels and consonants, Devanagari uses four important symbols that modify how characters are pronounced.^[4]

Anusvara (अनुस्वार): ं

The anusvara is written as a small dot above the shirorekha. It nasalises the preceding vowel and represents a nasal sound that assimilates to the consonant that follows it.

• हिंदी (Hindī): the dot over इ nasalises the vowel before द.
• संस्कृत (Sanskrit): the dot over स before स is pronounced as a nasal.

The anusvara is sometimes loosely called "bindu" (बिन्दु, dot).

Visarga (विसर्ग): ः

The visarga is written as two small dots (like a colon) after a vowel. It adds a light, breathy "h" sound after the vowel. It is more common in Sanskrit and formal Hindi than in everyday speech.

• दुःख (duḥkha), suffering; the visarga after उ gives it a light "h" breath.
• नमः (namaḥ), often heard in Sanskrit chants.

Chandrabindu (चंद्रबिंदु): ँ

The chandrabindu (literally "moon-dot") is a small crescent with a dot above a vowel. It marks a nasalised vowel: the vowel itself becomes nasal, without the consonant-assimilation effect of the anusvara.

• हाँ (hā̃): "yes" in Hindi.
• वहाँ (vahā̃): "there."

Halant / Virama (हलंत): ्

Every consonant in Devanagari carries an inherent "a" sound. The halant (also called virama) is placed beneath a consonant to cancel that inherent vowel, producing a "pure" consonant sound.

The halant is used in two ways:

• At the end of a word, to show that the last consonant has no vowel: डॉक्टर् (ḍākṭar): "doctor."
• Inside conjunct consonants: when two consonants appear with no vowel between them, the first consonant loses its inherent vowel and the two glyphs merge into a single conjunct (संयुक्ताक्षर). For example, क् + त = क्त → seen in क्त as in "shakti" (शक्ति).

Conjunct consonants are one of the most complex aspects of written Devanagari and are essential for reading Sanskrit-origin vocabulary in Hindi.

Barakhadi (बारहखड़ी): The Syllabic Chart

Barakhadi (बारहखड़ी) literally means "twelve rows." It is a foundational learning chart that shows every consonant combined systematically with each of the vowels. Mastering the barakhadi is the core method through which Hindi literacy is taught in Indian schools; once a student knows the vowels and consonants individually, the barakhadi drills the combinations until they become automatic.

The 13 columns in the chart represent the 11 vowels plus the anusvara (अं) and visarga (अः) forms. Reading across a row gives all the syllabic forms of a single consonant.

Reading the chart: for each row, find the consonant on the left, then read across. For क (ka): क, का, कि, की, कु, कू, कृ, के, कै, को, कौ, कं, कः: those are the 13 syllables built from क.

Hindi Numerals

Devanagari has its own numeral set, historically derived from the same ancient Brahmi numerals that gave rise to the Arabic numerals (0–9) used internationally today. Both systems are used in India; Arabic numerals dominate print media, signage, and digital text, while Devanagari numerals appear in government documents, traditional publishing, and formal Hindi writing.

Devanagari in the Unicode Standard

Devanagari is encoded in the Unicode Standard as a contiguous block spanning code points U+0900 to U+097F, comprising 128 assigned characters.^[5] The block is organised into the following categories:

Unicode's coverage of Devanagari ensures that any Hindi text, from a simple word processor to a smartphone keyboard, renders consistently across operating systems and devices. For typing tools, each key press on a Devanagari keyboard maps to one of these code points, which is why the full Unicode block is relevant to anyone building or using Hindi typing software.