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INDIAN BRANCH
377
Bhabhiras, Achiki Punjabi. Stack pointed out that none of these scripts, with the exception of the Khwajas, have more than four signs for the ten vowel-sounds, simple and compound; and even these few were mainly used for initial forms. On the other hand, these scripts possessed six consonantal signs for sounds (a kind of tr, dr, and so forth), for which there are no equivalents either in Indian or European languages.
The most important is the Khudawadi character, used at Hyderabad and known by most educated merchants throughout the country. The Shikarpuri and Sakkar varieties differ very little from the Khudawadi script.
Sindhi Character
The Landa script, called in Sindhi baniya or waniko (the "mercantile" script), became almost an official character in 1868. This script is also used in schools and for printing books in Sind (Fig. 153. col. 17, and 171, 2).
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Fig. 171
Specimens of the Multani (1) and Sindhi (2) scripts
It must, however, be remembered that the majority of Sindhi speakers -numbering some three millions, in Sind and neighbouring districtswho are Moslems, generally employ the Persian-Arabic alphabet with several additional letters for the sounds peculiar to the local speech. The Deva-nagari and the Gurmukhi (see below) character are also used. The majority of Lahnda speakers are also Moslems, who usually employ the Persian-Arabic alphabet.
Gurmukhi Script
Tradition ascribes the invention of the Gurmukhi character (Fig. 153. col. 13, and 170) to Angad (1538-52), the second Sikh Guru; the term Gur-mukhi means that the script proceeded from the mouth of the Guru. It is said that Angad found that Sikh hymns written in Landa character were liable to be misread, and therefore he improved it to record the sacred
