I recently looked at several YouTube videos that teach you how to write Devaganari, the abugida writing system used by languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Maithili and Sanskrit. What struck me as someone who has previously learnt Chinese (for a while) is that the "stroke order", which is very important in Chinese, is inconsistent between the videos.
For example, for क:
- How to Write & Speak Hindi Consonant Alphabets Letters - Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha: first the vertical line, then the left part, then the right part, and finally the horizontal line at the top. This video consistently writes the horizontal stroke last. (This is also the stroke order used in this video about the Sanskrit alphabet.)
- how to write devanagari alphabet : first the horizontal stroke, then the vertical one, then the left part and finally the right part. This video consistently draws the horizontal stroke first.
- How to Write Hindi Alphabets One By One | Writing Hindi Varnamala | हिन्दी व्यंजन | Hindi Vyanjan: first the left part, then the vertical stroke, then the right part and finally the horizontal stroke at the top.
That's just three different ways in the handful of videos that I found on my first search on YouTube. Which is the right one? Or am I mistaken in thinking that there is only one way for all languages using Devanagari? (Perhaps different languages adopted different stroke orders? Or different regions use different stroke orders? Or perhaps it doesn't matter as long as you are consistent in your own handwriting?)
Update: The YouTube playlist CrazyLassi - DEVANAGARI SCRIPT (Stroke order in English) illustrates an argument for writing the horizontal stroke last: words consists of several letters and you can only draw the horizontal stroke with its correct length when you've written the individual letters. See also the blogpost Devanagari stroke orders. (The creator of the videos is Lithuanian but lives in India.)