Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. The system most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1888. ASCII-based transliteration schemes have also evolved because of difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS, a transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode-aware web browsers, IAST has become common online. It is also possible to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to Devanagari using software like Mac OS X's international support. COUNT 5
QSN1 From what time has the Latin alphabet been used to transcribe Sanskrit? ANS1 late 18th century QSN2 What transliteration system is most common today? ANS2 IAST QSN3 How long has IAST been the standard system used for transliteration of Sanskrit? ANS3 since 1888 QSN4 What is used in transliteration for computer systems?  ANS4 ASCII QSN5 What transliteration scheme is often used on the internet? ANS5 ITRANS