Step by step
How to use the marathi keyboard
- 1The keyboard above is already set to Marathi; you can switch language from the list if you need another.
- 2Click the keys on screen, or just type — your own keyboard is remapped to the layout shown.
- 3Use Shift for the second layer, which carries the rest of the characters.
- 4Copy the text when you are done, or download it as a .txt file.
Why type Marathi in a browser
Adding Marathi to an operating system is a settings-menu expedition that ends in a keyboard you cannot see: the letters are not printed on your keys, so you are typing blind in a script you may have no muscle memory for, and you have changed a system-wide setting to write one line.
The usual workaround is worse — hunting characters in a character-map utility and pasting them one at a time, or copying words out of search results and hoping the spelling survived the trip.
A visible keyboard solves the specific problem of writing Marathi occasionally: filling in a Maharashtra government form that will not accept Latin script, writing a name, a village or an address exactly as the records hold it, or typing a line of Marathi into a document that is otherwise in English. Every key is on screen, the arrangement is the standard one, and when you are finished there is nothing to undo.
ळ, and the letter Hindi does not have
Marathi shares Devanagari with Hindi but not its inventory. The clearest difference is ळ, the retroflex lateral, which Marathi uses constantly — in मराठी itself it does not appear, but in काळ, शाळा, वेळ and thousands of ordinary words it does. Hindi has no such letter. On this board it is on the Shift layer of the bottom row, where InScript places it for every script that has it.
Marathi also keeps ण and ष in active use where Hindi often does not, and writes the eyelash reph — the ऱ् in ऱ्हस्व and अर्ऱ्हा — using the ऱ on the Shift layer rather than the ordinary र.
The vowel worth knowing is ऍ, on Shift over the number row. Marathi borrows a great many English words and needs a sound Devanagari was not built for: the a in bank, the a in cash. ऍ is what writes बॅंक and कॅश, and it is the mark that makes borrowed words look like Marathi rather than like a transliteration.
Anusvara is not a substitute for a nasal consonant
Marathi writes nasals two ways, and which one is correct is a spelling question rather than a stylistic one. The anusvara — the dot ं on the S position — stands in for a nasal before another consonant: मंदिर, गंगा. A full nasal consonant, ण or न or म, is written out when it carries its own weight.
Substituting one for the other is the most common error in typed Marathi, and it is invisible at a glance. मंदिर with a written न instead of the dot is a different string, and the two will not match each other in a search, a database lookup or a name check against an official record.
The practical advice is to type what the printed form shows rather than what the word sounds like. If you are copying a name off an identity document, copy the marks as well as the letters.
Shree Lipi, Kiran and the Maharashtra font problem
Marathi publishing ran on non-Unicode fonts for decades, and Shree Lipi and Kiran are still on office machines across Maharashtra. Like Kruti Dev in Hindi, they store Latin codepoints and paint Devanagari shapes on top, so a document is only Marathi for as long as the font travels with it.
The consequence people meet is a form rejecting their text, or a name arriving at a bank as a row of Latin consonants. It is not a mistake anyone made while typing; the text was never Marathi in the file.
What this keyboard produces is Unicode Devanagari, which is what portals, Aadhaar-linked forms and modern printing all expect. It pastes into Word, into a browser field, into WhatsApp, and into a PDF without carrying anything with it.
Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is installed
The whole keyboard is data in the page. There is no request to a server, no account and nothing stored, so the names, addresses and private messages that people type into a tool like this stay in the tab they were typed in.
You can also skip the clicking. Your own keys are remapped to the Marathi layout as you type, matched by physical position rather than by the letter printed on them — which means it works the same whether your system runs QWERTY, AZERTY or something else entirely.
Copy the result, or save it as a .txt file. Editing keys behave normally throughout: Backspace deletes, the arrows move, and Ctrl or Cmd shortcuts reach your clipboard as usual.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Where is ळ on the keyboard?
On the Shift layer of the bottom row, at the V position. It is the retroflex lateral Marathi uses and Hindi does not.
How do I write borrowed English words like बॅंक?
Use ऍ, on the Shift layer of the number row. It writes the vowel in bank and cash that Devanagari otherwise has no letter for.
Is the Marathi keyboard different from the Hindi one?
No. InScript is defined for the Devanagari script rather than for a language, so the arrangement is identical and every letter Marathi needs is on it.
Do I need to install a language pack?
No. Nothing is installed and no system setting is changed. The keyboard is part of the page and disappears when you close the tab.
Is my text private?
Yes. Nothing is uploaded — the keystrokes never leave your browser, which matters for the names and addresses this kind of tool is mostly used for.