Vowels come first.

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Note added at 19 mins (2008-11-12 17:49:41 GMT)
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The KUDOZ question is- Which comes first -vowels or consonants?

Lets not get into spelling mistakes of the asker.

The simple answer is that vowels come first.

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Note added at 16 mins (2008-11-12 17:46:17 GMT)
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ORDER:
http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/साँचा:CompactTOChindi

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Note added at 23 mins (2008-11-12 17:53:28 GMT)
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Name of the countries in alphabetical order:
http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/विश्व_के_सभी_देश

According to me the Vowel shuld not come first in Hindi dictionary and there should be consonant first. Because when a learner starts learning Hindi. He would learn Ka, Kha, Ga,Gha......etc under level one and in second level he needs to learn formation of words and in that time only he would utilize vowels to form words but at the primitive stage there is no need of learning vowels. Thus, as per my view the consonant should be first as it is the first level of Hindi.

This is an important question and I am glad someone has asked it.

In Hindi, the vowels come first and then the consonents in the order they appear in the Hindi alphabet. The order is as follows:

Vowel order:
अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ए ऐ ओ औ

Consonent order:
क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ ट ठ ड ढ ण त थ द ध न प फ ब भ म य र ल व श ष स ह

Anuswar अं, anunasic अँ are usually written before the vowels and the consonents on which they appear. Thus हँस and हंस will precede हसीना in the alphabetical order.

Of अं and अँ which comes first is an issue that needs deliberation. In the Aadarsh Hindi Shabdakosh, no distinction is made between them and the alphabetical order is determined by the consonants over which these appear.

An additional issue here is that nowadays, the pancham varna is represented by the anuswar (डण्डा = डंडा, गङ्गा = गंगा, etc.). However, when arranging such words in alphabetical order the anusvar should not be considered but the pancham varna which it replaces.

Of late, Hindi is also using a new vowel ऑ which will frequently appear in country names like ऑस्ट्रिया (though this is also written as आस्ट्रिया). Since this vowel is not accepted in grammar books, and dictionaries rarely include foreign proper nouns, it is difficult to determine the position of this vowel in the Hindi alphabetical order. It is usually put at the end of the vowel list, after औ. So ऑस्ट्रिया will come after ओमान.

In the case of consonants there are two conjoined consonants क्ष and ज्ञ which are sometimes treated as separate consonants and words beginning with these are listed separately in the dictionary.

Actually क्ष is क+ष and words beginning with क्ष should be treated as words beginning with क.

Similarly, ज्ञ is ज+ञ and words beginning with ज्ञ should be treated as words beginning with ज.