the rañjanā script (lantsa) is an abugida writing system which developed in the 11th century and until the mid-20th century was used in an area from nepal to tibet by the newar people, the historic inhabitants of the kathmandu valley, to write sanskrit, tibetan, and newari. many of the most famous buddhist and hindu texts produced in the region were written in ranjana, which became one of the iconic scripts of nepal. nowadays it is also used in buddhist monasteries in india; china, especially in the tibetan buddhist areas within the tibet autonomous region, sichuan, yunnan, qinghai and gansu; mongolia, and japan. it is normally written from left to right but the kutakshar form is written from top to bottom. it is also considered to be the standard nepali calligraphic script.