Google Transliteration IME for Sanskrit

Google Transliteration IME (Input Method Editor) is a free (gratis) software for many Indian languages. It lets you type Sanskrit, Kannada, etc. from your English keyboard. An excellent feature is automatic word-completion using its built-in dictionary (which works offline too). For example, just type ‘kR’ and it suggests कृष्ण, कृत्वा , etc.

It’s annoying to note that there is no key mapping for Devanagari daṇḍa ( । ) or double daṇḍa ( ॥ ), even if you use the on-screen keyboard. Another problem with the Sanskrit IME is that it is not fully phonetic. For example, typing ‘priyan’ does not show प्रियन् at all ! It suggests something else like पर्यन, प्रियान, etc.

I’ve solved both of these problems using the “Canonical Schemes”. Basically, Google lets you define your own key-mappings if you are not happy with the default ones. It uses something called “classes” (not OOP!) in a scheme (.scm) file. I have created a scheme file which uses the Harvard Kyoto mappings for Devanagari transliteration. Download HarvardKyoto.scm here. Save it in:

C:\Program Files\Google\Google Sanskrit Input\Schemes 

and that’s it. The next time you open Google IME, you’ll see a ‘C’ icon. Just click it and start using.

The daṇḍa (। , U+0964) is mapped to vertical line ( |, U+007C). The file is simple enough to read, and you can modify it to ITRANS, ISO 15919, etc.

The file HarvardKyoto.scm is copyrighted by me and released under the GNU General Public License v3.