We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffuse tensor imaging (DTI) to study neural implications of silent reading of words in mutually comprehensible but visually and orthographically distinct languages for example Hindi and Urdu by independent groups of skilled readers. The fMRI results (conjunction analyses) showed the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45), bilateral inferior occipital (BA 18/19), bilateral superior parietal (BA 7), left pre-central region (BA 6), and bilateral inferior temporal gyrus (BA 20) as common regions for Hindi and Urdu readers. Some additional regions such as left ventral occipitotemporal, left middle frontal (BA 46), left middle occipital (BA18), and bilateral post-central regions (BA 3) were observed for Urdu readers. DTI results showed significantly higher FA value at the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in Urdu speakers. Overall findings suggest strong engagement of ventral visual pathway in reading Urdu which has a visually complex deep orthography.