IAST is the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, a diacritic-based Roman scheme used by scholars to represent Devanagari unambiguously. It distinguishes long and short vowels and retroflex consonants, for example ā, ī and ṭ.

How is the inherent vowel handled?

Each Devanagari consonant carries an inherent short 'a'. The tool adds 'a' after a consonant unless a dependent vowel sign or the virama follows it, so क is ka while क् is just k.

Does it handle conjuncts and the virama correctly?

Yes. The virama (्) suppresses the inherent vowel, so a consonant cluster like स्त transliterates as 'sta' rather than 'sata', preserving the conjunct.

Are nukta letters like ज़ supported?

Yes. Nukta consonants used for Hindi and Urdu loan sounds are mapped — ज़ becomes z, फ़ becomes f and क़ becomes q — with input normalised so both spellings match.

Is my text sent to a server?

No. The transliteration is computed entirely in your browser and the text is never uploaded.

Hindi IAST Transliteration

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This tool converts Devanagari Hindi into IAST, the diacritic Roman notation scholars use to represent Indic scripts precisely. Unlike loose phonetic spellings, IAST is reversible and distinguishes vowel length and retroflex consonants.

How it works

The converter normalises the input to NFC, then walks it character by character. When it hits a consonant it emits the base Roman letter and then decides the following vowel: a dependent vowel sign replaces the inherent vowel, the virama (्, U+094D) suppresses it entirely, and otherwise the inherent short a is added. Independent vowels, Devanagari digits, the anusvara (ं → ṃ), visarga (ः → ḥ) and candrabindu are mapped to their IAST equivalents. Nukta consonants such as ज़ and फ़ are handled whether typed precomposed or as base plus nukta.

Example

The word नमस्ते transliterates as follows:

न  -> na
म  -> ma
स् -> s   (virama suppresses the inherent 'a')
त  -> t
े  -> e   (vowel sign on त)

giving namaste.

Notes

IAST is intended for scholarly and academic use; for casual phonetic spelling a Hunterian or ITRANS scheme may read more naturally. Everything runs locally in your browser.