Secret Script of Sindhi Merchants
Among the Sindhi language speaking merchants of colonial India a secret script named Hat vāṇikī हट वाणिकी was used to keep accounts & business correspondence. The word "Hat vāṇikī" literally translates as "language of market traders".
Among the Sindhi language speaking merchants of colonial India a secret script named Hat vāṇikī हट वाणिकी was used to keep accounts & business correspondence. The word "Hat vāṇikī" literally translates as "language of market traders".
This Brahmi based script was related to Khudawadī (another script used by Sindhi merchants) and Gurmukhi, the main difference being, absence of vowels markings (like an Abjad script) in Hat vāṇikī. It was more like a short-hand used by the global diaspora of Sindhi merchants.
An interesting anecdotes related to Hat vāṇikī is - a girl got married & went to live with her in-laws in another city. Some weeks later her in-laws sent a little note in Hat vāṇikī to her family saying that ‘Hiri miri veiahe’(‘She’s doing well’)...
Unfortunately her parents chose to read it as ‘Hari mari veiahe’ (‘She’s dead’) & started mourning. In modern times, Ulhasnagar near Mumbai is probably the only place in india where some Sindhi merchants still use this secret script.
Interestingly, especially in pre-partition days there were slight variations in the script according to Sindhi castes: thus the script of Bhaiband community was slightly different from the chhapru's script. Although these differences were minor & involved only a few consonants.
