Sanskrit · Transliteration
IAST converter: Devanagari ⇄ Sanskrit Roman
Turn Devanagari Sanskrit into IAST (dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre) and back, or into ISO 15919, ITRANS and Harvard-Kyoto.
IAST: International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration: diacritics (ā ī ū ṛ ṃ ś ṣ). The scholarly standard for Sanskrit.
01 · IAST chart
Devanagari in IAST, side by side with the other Roman schemes.
Generated by the converter. Notice that IAST uses diacritics only; ITRANS and Harvard-Kyoto use capital letters, so they can be typed on any keyboard.
Vowels
| Devanagari | IAST | ISO 15919 | ITRANS | Harvard-Kyoto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| अ | a | a | a | a |
| आ | ā | ā | A | A |
| इ | i | i | i | i |
| ई | ī | ī | I | I |
| उ | u | u | u | u |
| ऊ | ū | ū | U | U |
| ऋ | ṛ | r̥ | RRi | R |
| ॠ | ṝ | r̥̄ | RRI | RR |
| ऌ | ḷ | l̥ | LLi | lR |
| ए | e | ē | e | e |
| ऐ | ai | ai | ai | ai |
| ओ | o | ō | o | o |
| औ | au | au | au | au |
Consonants
| Devanagari | IAST | ISO 15919 | ITRANS | Harvard-Kyoto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| क | ka | ka | ka | ka |
| ख | kha | kha | kha | kha |
| ग | ga | ga | ga | ga |
| घ | gha | gha | gha | gha |
| ङ | ṅa | ṅa | ~Na | Ga |
| च | ca | ca | cha | ca |
| छ | cha | cha | Cha | cha |
| ज | ja | ja | ja | ja |
| झ | jha | jha | jha | jha |
| ञ | ña | ña | ~na | Ja |
| ट | ṭa | ṭa | Ta | Ta |
| ठ | ṭha | ṭha | Tha | Tha |
| ड | ḍa | ḍa | Da | Da |
| ढ | ḍha | ḍha | Dha | Dha |
| ण | ṇa | ṇa | Na | Na |
| त | ta | ta | ta | ta |
| थ | tha | tha | tha | tha |
| द | da | da | da | da |
| ध | dha | dha | dha | dha |
| न | na | na | na | na |
| प | pa | pa | pa | pa |
| फ | pha | pha | pha | pha |
| ब | ba | ba | ba | ba |
| भ | bha | bha | bha | bha |
| म | ma | ma | ma | ma |
| य | ya | ya | ya | ya |
| र | ra | ra | ra | ra |
| ल | la | la | la | la |
| व | va | va | va | va |
| श | śa | śa | sha | za |
| ष | ṣa | ṣa | Sha | Sa |
| स | sa | sa | sa | sa |
| ह | ha | ha | ha | ha |
| ळ | l̤a | ḷa | La | La |
| क्ष | kṣa | kṣa | kSha | kSa |
| ज्ञ | jña | jña | j~na | jJa |
Marks and punctuation
| Devanagari | IAST | ISO 15919 | ITRANS | Harvard-Kyoto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| कं | kaṃ | kaṁ | kaM | kaM |
| कः | kaḥ | kaḥ | kaH | kaH |
| कँ | ka~ | kam̐ | ka.N | ka~ |
| क् | k | k | k | k |
| ऽ | ' | ' | .a | ' |
| ॐ | oṃ | ōṁ | OM | OM |
| । | | | । | | | | |
| ॥ | || | ॥ | || | || |
02 · Sanskrit words
Well-known terms, there and back.
Every word was converted to IAST and back to Devanagari when this page was built. The last column shows whether the round trip returned the original.
| Devanagari | IAST | Round trip |
|---|---|---|
| धर्म | dharma | identical |
| कर्म | karma | identical |
| योग | yoga | identical |
| ज्ञान | jñāna | identical |
| भक्ति | bhakti | identical |
| आत्मन् | ātman | identical |
| ब्रह्म | brahma | identical |
| संस्कृत | saṃskṛta | identical |
| कृष्ण | kṛṣṇa | identical |
| विष्णु | viṣṇu | identical |
| सरस्वती | sarasvatī | identical |
| सच्चिदानन्द | saccidānanda | identical |
| उपनिषद् | upaniṣad | identical |
| पुरुषार्थ | puruṣārtha | identical |
| ऋग्वेद | ṛgveda | identical |
| यज्ञ | yajña | identical |
03 · Reading IAST
Five rules for reading diacritics.
- 01
A bar is a long vowel
ā ī ū are the long vowels आ ई ऊ. e, o, ai and au are always long and carry no bar.
āआ
- 02
A dot below is retroflex
ṭ ḍ ṇ (ट ड ण) are said with the tongue curled back; ṣ is the retroflex sh (ष).
ṭट
- 03
An acute accent is the palatal
ś (श) is the palatal sh; ñ (ञ) and ṅ (ङ) are the nasals.
śश
- 04
Vocalic r
ṛ (ऋ) is a vowel: kṛṣṇa is कृष्ण. Do not read it as “ri” with a consonant r.
ṛऋ
- 05
ṃ and ḥ
ṃ is anusvara (ं) and ḥ is visarga (ः): saṃskṛta, duḥkha.
ṃं
- 06
No inherent a is dropped
IAST writes every “a”: kamala, not kamal. Hindi speakers drop it; Sanskrit does not.
aअ
For Hindi in plain English letters without diacritics, use Hindi to English transliteration.
04 · FAQ
Questions about iast converter
What is IAST?
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is the standard way to write Sanskrit in Roman letters with diacritics: ā ī ū for long vowels, ṛ for the vowel ऋ, ṭ ḍ ṇ for retroflex consonants, ś ṣ for the sibilants, ṃ and ḥ for anusvara and visarga. It was adopted at the 1894 Congress of Orientalists in Geneva and is used by most scholarly editions.
How do I type IAST letters like ā, ṭ and ś?
Copy them from the converter output, use your phone’s long-press menu, or on a computer enable a "US International" or a Sanskrit-specific keyboard layout. Or type plain ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto (aa, T, sh) in the tool and read the IAST in the output.
What is the difference between IAST and ISO 15919?
IAST is made for Sanskrit. ISO 15919 covers all Indic scripts: it marks the short e and o of the southern languages (e vs ē, o vs ō), writes anusvara as ṁ, and has extra letters for Dravidian sounds (ṟ, ḻ). For Sanskrit and Hindi text the two are nearly identical.
Why do my IAST letters show up as boxes?
The font lacks the diacritic letters. Use a font with Latin Extended Additional such as Noto Sans/Serif, Charis SIL, Gentium or DejaVu. Standard Word fonts usually include them, so check the font.
Does it handle Vedic accent marks?
Basic Devanagari, including ॐ, avagraha ऽ, danda and double danda, yes. Vedic svara marks (udātta, anudātta) are not converted: they are left as they are.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser.