As on date, the official script of Konkani recognized for awards by Sahitya Academy and approved by the Union and the concerned State Governments is Devanagari. Is it necessary and proper to have alternate scripts such as Roman, Kannada and Malayalam for writing in Konkani? It is for scholars and linguists to ponder over this subject and draw a conclusion. As far as Sabha is concerned, there is no doubt with regard to its stand. As early as in 1968, soon after the Sabha came into existence, the Kerala Government recognized Konkani as a language with Devanagari as its script. Even prior to that, the Jha Commission in its report made to the Central Government in 1962, recommended that Konkani should be taught in schools using Devanagari script. Considering that the language is spoken in states other than Goa, a cultural affinity between the people of these States and the parent State of Goa can be had by using a singular script and the best one is Devanagari which is the script for several north Indian languages. Historically also, Devanagari would be the script for writing in Konkani. The introduction containing a testimonial to Van Rheed’s Hortus Indicus Malabaricus written in the seventeenth century is enough proof that even the Dutch had recognized Devanagari as the script of Konkani. This book written with the assistance of three Konkani speaking persons (Appu Bhatt, Vinayaka Pandit and Ranga Bhatt) has a testimonial which is printed in Devanagari script and reads as follows:
स्वस्ति श्री शालीवाहन शक १५९७ राक्षस संवत्सर चैत्र बहुल १० कोची राजपट्टणी बैसिके रंगभट्ट तथा विनायक पण्डित अप्पुभट्ट तेग वैद्य तानी कोचिचा कुमडोर आडरिकी पादरे त्याचा निरोपान ह्या मलबार् देशान्तु आविरले औषध मात्र वृक्ष वाली झाड खन्दे वल्कतेला मनुष्याक मुसार देवून ते ते गावांतु पेटोवून ती ती वोक्कद अणवून त्या त्या झाडा चे फल फूल पान बीज समस्त त्या त्या ऋतु कालवरी संपादून तीं तीं चितारिली त्या उपरांत आमी आंगेल्या वैद्यग्रंंथाचा निघंटु प्रमाणी त्या त्या औषधाचे गुण वा अनुभवान जो जो गुण आमका कलेलों तो वा त्या वोखदाची नाव पलोवणु आजई दानी वर्ष सकाली संजे आमी लागि रबून हा लिवरु संपदून् दिलावे लटिक अशी म्हणुचाक नज अशी म्हणु आमी आमची निसाणि कोरनू दिली ते सत्य म्हणू मानुचे जईद म्हणू नागर बरपान हे बरदून दिल्या श्री …..
What more is required to establish without doubt that Devanagari was being used as the natural script for writing Konkani. for historical and demographical reasons, writing in Konkani came to a halt over the last few centuries. Instead of switching back to Devanagari, regional language scripts came to be used when we realized that Konkani had been the mother language of our ancestors. The Sabha has been in the forefront to take up cudgels on behalf of a uniform script for Konkani and has not spared any efforts to convince the concerned authorities that this script should be none other than Devanagari.
Malayalam, Kannada and Roman scripts can be continued to be used by Konkani writers as per their choice and convenience, but Devanagari alone should be the official script, and awards should go only to writings in that script.