Discover our inspiring journey and mission as an INDIVIDUAL, to make a positive impact on the world of Learning and Teaching Sanskrit.
॥ वाग् यज्ञेन कल्पताम् ॥
॥ वाग् यज्ञेन कल्पताम् ॥
Discover our inspiring journey and mission as an INDIVIDUAL, to make a positive impact on the world of Learning and Teaching Sanskrit.
I have been fascinated with Sanskrit ever since I learnt 'Amara Kosa', the equivalent of the English Thesaurus from the family priest as a boy in Bangalore, growing up in a traditional family, headed by a Sanskrit scholar. Continuing through my studies as a second language in B.Sc., I was awarded for computerisation of Panini's Sandhi Suthras, while running a computer academy in Mysore. I learnt the Veda-s from my Guru in Singapore.
It was during these experiences that the importance of pronouncing the sounds correctly was brought home to me, echoing the overall critical nature of sounds in human communication. Out of this inspiring motivation was born the Sanskrit to English (and back) transliteration scheme which I called KrishnaDheva, the 'Dheva' intended to link the name to Dhevanagari, the primary script for Sanskrit.
The KrishnaDheva (KD) scheme was conceptualized in 2008 and formally copyrighted in India in 2013, at a time when several Sanskrit transliteration systems — such as IAST, HK, ITRANS, and SLP1 were already in use. Developed after a thorough analysis of these existing systems, the KD-Scheme was envisioned as a unified coding framework for Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada and other languages. It was first presented in Singapore on 23 February 2014.
For several years, the idea remained largely dormant until I met Mr. Shankar H Iyer, whose initiative and commitment revived its purpose. Through his efforts, the vision of making the KD-Scheme accessible to a wider audience began to take shape, leading to the establishment of KrishnaDhevaLipi.org as a public platform for the learning and teaching of Sanskrit.
This initiative led by Mr. Iyer, began as a personal endeavor to make knowledge more accessible, inclusive, and practical for everyday learners. After retiring from the Government of India Telecom Services, Mr. Iyer began studying Sanskrit at the age of 58. He subsequently passed the Pravesha, Parichaya, Shiksha, and Kovida examinations conducted by Samskruta Bharati, New Delhi, with distinction, and later completed a Master’s degree in Sanskrit from Karnataka State Open University with first-class honors.
Notably, this platform has been developed by Mr. Iyer with only my support, but without institutional backing or a dedicated technical team. It has grown step by step through his self-learning, experimentation, and a sustained commitment to making knowledge available in a usable digital form. His work reflects a deep passion for promoting Sanskrit literacy through the effective use of modern technology.
Over time, KrishnaDhevaLipi.org has evolved into a platform offering tools that enable users to read, write, listen to, and interact with multilingual content. Features such as multilingual editing, read-aloud functionality, and translation of Sanskrit into various Indic and international languages — along with options to highlight, read, and listen — have been developed with a clear guiding principle: technology should support learning without adding unnecessary complexity.
The platform continues to grow steadily, with each component introduced only after careful testing and practical validation. The emphasis remains on reliability, clarity, and accessibility for learners across linguistic and geographical boundaries. The planned integration of structured learning modules marks the next phase of development, aiming to provide organized courses and guided learning within the same ecosystem.
I am confident that Mr. Shankar H Iyer will continue to develop this platform with patience, discipline, and a deep respect for the learning process. What began as an effort to introduce a unified coding scheme now stands poised to evolve into a valuable resource for students, teachers, and lifelong learners who seek clarity, accessibility, and meaningful engagement with knowledge through interaction with not just Sanskrit but various other languages as well.
Recognizing the maturity of Indic computing tools available today, KrishnaDevaLipi Project, does not seek to compete with existing platforms, but rather to implement, integrate, and sustain this unified coding approach within a robust web-based ecosystem.
The Project is Conceived and Developed as a non-profitable, educational, service oriented and, to facilitate the learners of India as well as the Globe to refer the vast Sanskrit literature for their higher studies, research and paper publishing in the form of searchable content instead of scrolling through thousands of scanned static pages. The Team and Founder are making honorary contribution to build the site and repository without any commercial future plans. The Project is maintained from your Donations!
Born to Late. Harihara Iyer & SeethaLakshmi, in Tenkasi, I received Primary and Secondary education from Government school, in Tamil medium, graduated as B.Sc. (Physics) from Paramakalyani College, Alwarkuruchi, Tamilnadu, in the year 1981.
Now, at the age of 65, I developed this site, for YOU to listen, learn, read and translate Chandamama Sanskrit stories, various Sanskrit literature and to create your own Multilingual Sanskrit study/teaching materials.
Slowly and steadily, but regularly I will be uploading various contents with God’s Grace, in my left-over life!!
I am humbled by the liberal funding and encouragements given by Prof. Dr. N. Krishnamurthy, to setup this domain. True to this Subhashitam, Prof. Krishna, is God sent सहायकृत् !!
उद्यमः साहसं धैर्यं बुद्धिः शक्तिः पराक्रमः।
षड् एते यत्र वर्तन्ते तत्र देवाः सहायकृत्॥
Over the long term, KrishnaDevaLipi aims to evolve into a collaborative national platform where scholars, teachers, and students across India—and globally—can contribute, learn, and share knowledge irrespective of script or regional language barriers. By adopting a single standardized input method and rendering content in multiple scripts (lipis), the project seeks to dissolve linguistic silos and promote true intellectual exchange.
Digitize and preserve classical Sanskrit and Indic texts as high-quality Unicode text, not merely as scanned images, but enable easy search and analysis. Build a web-based platform where texts can be read like books, searched like databases, and linked contextually. Also, to Encourage community-driven contribution by scholars, teachers, and students, with fair compensation for content creation.
By mutual collaboration KrishnaDevaLipi wants to become a living digital repository of Indian knowledge systems, like:
Various Shastras
Various Kavyas
Various Sutras
Various Puranas
Indian Itihasas
Life Changing Shubhashitas
Shloka Chants & Sanskrit Stories
Customized Sanskrit Lessons