Ancient scripts of the Indian subcontinent

Ancient Indian scripts have been used in the history of the Indian subcontinent as writing systems. The Indian subcontinent consists of various separate linguistic communities, each of which share a common language and culture. The people of the ancient India wrote in many scripts which largely have common roots.^[1]

India in 250BC

Indus script

 

Indus script font

The Indus script (also known as the Harappan script) is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley civilization, in Harrapa and Kot Diji. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whether or not these symbols constituted a script used to record a language, or even symbolise a writing system.^[2] In spite of many attempts,^[3] the 'script' has not yet been deciphered, but efforts are ongoing. It was used during time period of 2700–1900 BCE^[4][5][6]

Gupta script

The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi script or Late Brahmi script)^[7] was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India, which was a period of material prosperity and great religious and scientific developments. The Gupta script was descended from Brāhmī and gave rise to the Nāgarī, Śāradā and Siddhaṃ scripts. These scripts in turn gave rise to many of the most important scripts of India, including Devanāgarī (the most common script used for writing Sanskrit since the 19th century), the Gurmukhī script for Punjabi, the Bengali-Assamese script and the Tibetan script.

Siddhaṃ script

Siddhaṃ (also Siddhāṃ^[8]), also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā,^[9] is a medieval Brahmic abugida, derived from the Gupta script and ancestral to the Nāgarī, Assamese, Bengali, Tirhuta, Odia and Nepalese scripts.^[10]

Tibetan script

The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (abugida) of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and sometimes Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali.^[11] The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive forms used in everyday writing are called umê script.

The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.^[12] The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Meitei,^[13] Lepcha,^[14] Marchen and the multilingual ʼPhags-pa script.^[14]

Kharosthi script

 

Kharoshthi letters

The Kharosthi script, also spelled Kharoshthi or Kharoṣṭhī (Kharosthi: 𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨯𐨠𐨁) ^[15] was an ancient script used in Gandhara^[16] to write Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit. It was used in Central Asia as well.^[16] An abugida, it was introduced at least by the middle of the 3rd century BCE, possibly during the 4th century BCE,^[17] and remained in use until it died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE.^[16]

It was also in use in Bactria, the Kushan Empire, Sogdia, and along the Silk Road. There is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th century in Khotan and Niya, both cities in Xinjiang.

Sharada script

The Śāradā, Sarada or Sharada script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. The script was widespread between the 8th and 12th centuries in the northwestern parts of Indian Subcontinent (in Kashmir and northern KPK), for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri.^[18][19][20] Originally more widespread, its use became later restricted to Kashmir, and it is now rarely used except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for religious purposes.

 

Word Sharada in Sharada script

Landa script

Laṇḍā script evolved from the Śāradā during the 10th century. It was widely used in Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir and some parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was used to write Punjabi, Hindustani, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Kashmiri, Pashto, and various Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari.

 

Landa script Chart.

Sub-scripts of landa script

Landa script gave rise to many important descendant writing systems like;

Multani script

 

example of Multani script

Multani is a Brahmic script originating in the Multan region of Punjab. It was used to write Saraiki language, often considered a dialect of Western Punjabi language. The script was used for routine writing and commercial activities. Multani is one of four Landa scripts whose usage was extended beyond the mercantile domain and formalized for literary activity and printing; the others being Gurmukhi, Khojki, and Khudawadi.

Mahajani script

 

Mahajani Script

Mahajani is a Laṇḍā mercantile script that was historically for writing accounts and financial records in Marwari, Hindi and Punjabi.^[21] It is a Brahmic script and is written left-to-right. Mahajani refers to the Hindi word for 'bankers', also known as 'sarrafi' or 'kothival' (merchant).

Khojki script

Khojki, or Khojiki (Urdu: خوجكى; Sindhi: خوجڪي (Arabic script) खोजकी (Devanagari)), is a script used formerly and almost exclusively by the Khoja community of parts Sindh. The name "Khojki" is derived from the Persian word khoje, which means "master", or "lord". It was employed primarily to record Isma'ili religious literature as well as literature for a few secret Twelver sects. It is one of the two Landa scripts used for liturgy, the other being the Gurmukhī alphabet

Khudabadi script

 

Khudabadi script

Khudabadi (𑊻𑋩𑋣𑋏𑋠𑋔𑋠𑋏𑋢) is a script generally used by some Sindhis to write the Sindhi language. It is also known as Hathvanki (or Warangi) script. Khudabadi is one of the four scripts used for writing the Sindhi language, the others being Perso-Arabic, Khojki and Devanagari script.

Other scripts

Other important scripts that have been used for writing purposes include;

 

Bactrian script

Bactrian script

Bactrian (Αριαο, Aryao, [arjaː]) is an extinct language formerly spoken in the region of Bactria^[22] and was used as the official language of the Indo-Greek kingdom, Kushan, and the Hephthalite empires.

Brahmi script

Brahmi (/ˈbrɑːmi/; ISO 15919: Brāhmī ) is the modern name^[23] for a writing system of ancient South Asia. It latter gave rise of Sharada, Landa and other scripts.

Pahlavi script

During rule of Persian empires in parts of Balochistan, various Pahlavi scripts may have been used there as a writing system.

 

Pahlavi script

References

1. Salomon, Richard (1995). von Hinüber, Oskar; Falk, Harry (eds.). "On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 115 (2): 271–279. doi:10.2307/604670. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 604670.
2. Locklear, Mallory (January 25, 2017). "Science: Machine learning could finally crack the 4,000-year-old Indus script". The Verge. Manhattan, New York, NY: Vox Media. Retrieved January 25, 2017. After a century of failing to crack an ancient script, linguists turn to machines.
3. (Possehl, 1996)
4. David Whitehouse (May 4, 1999). "'Earliest writing' found". BBC News. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
5. "Evidence for Indus script dated to ca. 3500 BCE". Retrieved 2 September 2014.
6. Edwin Bryant. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University. p. 178.
7. Sharma, Ram. 'Brahmi Script' . Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002
8. Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, page 1215, col. 1 http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/
9. Rajan, Vinodh; Sharma, Shriramana (2012-06-28). "L2/12-221: Comments on naming the "Siddham" encoding" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-08-19.
10. "Devanagari: Development, Amplification, and Standardisation". Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Govt. of India. 3 April 1977. Retrieved 3 April 2018 – via Google Books.
11. Manzardo, Andrew E. "Impression Management and Economic Growth: The case of the Thakalis of Dhaulagiri Zone" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2023.
12. Chamberlain 2008
13. Chelliah, Shobhana Lakshmi (2011). A Grammar of Meithei. De Gruyter. p. 355. ISBN 9783110801118. Meithei Mayek is part of the Tibetan group of scripts, which originated from the Gupta Brahmi script
14. Daniels, Peter T. and William Bright. The World's Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
15. "When these alphabets were first deciphered, scholars gave them different names such as 'Indian-Pali' for Brahmi and 'Arian-Pali' for Kharosthi, but these terms are no longer in use." in Upāsaka, Sī Esa; Mahāvihāra, Nava Nālandā (2002). History of palæography of Mauryan Brāhmī script. Nava Nālanda Mahāvihāra. p. 6. ISBN 9788188242047.
16. R. D. Banerji (April 1920). "The Kharosthi Alphabet". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 52 (2): 193–219. doi:10.1017/S0035869X0014794X. JSTOR 25209596. S2CID 162688271.
17. Salomon 1998, pp. 11–13.
18. Selin, Helaine (2008). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media. p. Bakhshali Manuscript entry. Bibcode:2008ehst.book.....S. ISBN 9781402045592.
19. Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. p. 43. ISBN 9788131711200.
20. Sir George Grierson. (1916). "On the Sharada Alphabet". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17.
21. Pandey, Anshuman (2011-07-12). "N4126: Proposal to Encode the Mahajani Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
22. Sims-Williams, N. "Bactrian Language". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
23. Salomon 1998, p. 17 Quote: " Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as “lath” or “Lat,” “Southern Aśokan,” “Indian Pali,” “Mauryan,” and so on. The application to it of the name Brahmi [sc. lipi], which stands at the head of the Buddhist and Jaina script lists, was first suggested by T[errien] de Lacouperie, who noted that in the Chinese Buddhist encyclopedia Fa yiian chu lin the scripts whose names corresponded to the Brahmi and Kharosthi of the Lalitavistara are described as written from left to right and from right to left, respectively. He therefore suggested that the name Brahmi should refer to the left-to-right “Indo-Pali” script of the Aśokan pillar inscriptions, and Kharosthi to the right-to-left “Bactro-Pali” script of the rock inscriptions from the northwest."

Sources

• Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.

Further reading

• Pandey, Raj Bali (1952). Indian Palæography - Part 1 (PDF). Banaras: Motilal Banarasidas.