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ART AND CULTURE

Ancient Scripts of India

by LotusArise June 8, 2023 0 Comments

A script is also known as writing system or orthography. It is a standard for representing the
parts of a spoken language by making specific marks on a medium (Paper, rocks, birchbark,
etc). The two ancient scripts in India comprise Brahmi script and Kharosthi script.
Most of the ancient and modern scripts in India are developed from Brahmi script be it
Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Assamese/Bengali, etc. Hence, it can very much
be maintained that Brahmi is the mother of scripts.
However, Urdu is written in a script derived from Arabic, and a few minor languages such as
Santhali use independent scripts.
The undeciphered script of Indus Valley Civilization constitutes one of the oldest writings of
the sub-continent.
Many examples of vedic literature along with various advanced states of Ganga valley existed
before the Mauryan period.
Brahmi script was found in the inscriptions of the Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor.
Kharosthi script from northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan was derived from Aramaic script.
The Aramic script usage is credited to Persians who ruled some parts of the Indus Valley.

Origin and Evolution

Due to differences in cultures, regions’ Brahmi script was evolved into different types
depending on the region.
Due to greater emphasis on quicker approach rather than use of monumental inscriptions led to
emergence of cursive styles that formed India’s modern script.
Scripts in south India became rounded due to writing on palm leaves.
 Whereas in North India use of cloth and birch bark resulted in angular lines.
Urdu is written in an Arabic-derived script, and a few minor languages, such as Santhali, use
independent scripts.

Types of Scripts

Indus Script
The Indus script is a symbol corpus created by the Indus Valley Civilization.
The majority of inscriptions are extremely brief(short).
It is unclear whether these symbols are part of a script used to record a language.

Brahmi Script
Brahmi is one of the oldest writing systems, having been used in the Indian subcontinent and
Central Asia during the final centuries BCE and the early centuries CE.
Some believe that Brahmi was derived from the modern Semitic script, while others believe it
was Indus script.
The Brahmi is the ancestor of all surviving Indic scripts in South East Asia.
It is mostly written from left to right. It’s each unit is based on a consonant.
The best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in North-Central India,
dated 250–232 BC. The script was deciphered in 1837 by James Prinsep.
Descendents of Brahmi Script are as follows-
Gupta Script
It was used to write Sanskrit and belonged to the Gupta Empire.
The Nagari, Sharada, and Siddham scripts all descended from the Gupta script, which
descended from Brahmi.
These scripts gave rise to many of India’s most important scripts, including Devanagari,
Gurmukhi script for Punjabi, Assamese script, Bengali script, and Tibetan script.
All of these descendants of the Brahmi script are referred to as Brahmic scripts.

Kharosthi Script
The Kharosthi script (3rd Century BC – 3rd Century AD) is an ancient script used to
write Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit in ancient Gandhara (present-day Afghanistan and
Pakistan).
It is a sister script to Brahmi and was deciphered by James Princep.
It includes numbers similar to Roman numerals.
It is mostly written from right to left. Kharosthi is also an abugida like Brahmi.
Vatteluttu Script
The Vatteluttu alphabet is a South Indian abugida writing system.
Vatteluttu is one of the three main alphabet systems developed by Tamil people to write
the Granthi or Pallava alphabet and the Tamil script.
It is derived from Tamil-Brahmi.

Kadamba Script
The Kadamba script heralds the birth of a dedicated Kannada script.
It, too, is a descendant of the Brahmi script and was developed during the reign of
the Kadamba dynasty in the 4th-6th centuries.
This script was later adapted into Kannada-Telegu script.

Grantha Script
Between the sixth and twentieth centuries, Tamil speakers in South India, particularly in Tamil
Nadu and Kerala, used the Grantha script to write Sanskrit and the classical
language Manipravalam.
It is still used in traditional Vedic schools.
It is a Brahmic script that evolved from the Tamil Nadu Brahmi script.
The Malayalam script, like the Tigalari and Sinhala alphabets, is a direct descendant of
Grantha.

Sarada Script
The Sarada or Sharada script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts that
emerged around the eighth century.
It was employed in the writing of Sanskrit and Kashmiri.
Its use was once more widespread, but it was later restricted to Kashmir, and it is now rarely
used except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for religious purposes.
Gurmukhi Script
Gurmukhi evolved from the Sarada script and was standardised by Guru Angad in the 16th
century.
This script is used to write the entire Guru Granth Sahib and is the script most commonly used
by Sikhs and Hindus to write Punjabi.

Devanagari Script
Devanagari is an abugida alphabet that is used in India and Nepal.
It’s written from left to right.
The Devanagari script is used for over 120 languages and dialects, including Hindi, Marathi,
Nepali, Pali, Konkani, Bodo, Sindhi, and Maithili, making it one of the most widely used and
adopted writing systems in the world.
Classical Sanskrit texts are also written in Devanagari.

Modi Script
Modi is a script that is used to write Marathi language.
Modi was the official Marathi script until the twentieth century, when the Balbodh style of the
Devanagari script was promoted as the standard Marathi writing system.
Although Modi was primarily used to write Marathi, it is also known to have been used to write
Urdu, Kannada, Gujarati, Hindi, and Tamil.
Modi script is also an abugida.

Urdu Script
The Urdu alphabet is the Urdu language’s right-to-left alphabet.
It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which is derived from the Arabic alphabet and
dates back to the 13th century.
It is linked to the evolution of the Nastaliq style of Perso-Arabic script.
In its extended form, Urdu script is known as Shahmukhi script, and it is used to write other
Indo-Aryan languages of the North Indian subcontinent, such as Punjabi and Saraiki.
Thus, we see that Indian literary styles have undergone considerable changes over a long period of
time. Spread of Buddhism from India to various countries has influenced their scripts also,
especially Sri Lanka, Tibet and South-East Asia. The advent of Islam in India also caused a change
in the Indian writing tradition. However, it remains to be seen how the scripts and languages of a
country survive and evolve in the era of globalisation where English has become a lingua franca.

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 Ancient Indian Scripts – UPSC Notes

The script is a written symbolisation of speech. Throughout the ages, the evolution of writing from the
image of pictograms and then later on inscriptional images were inspired from calligraphic strokes.
Most modern Indian scripts have developed from the Brahmi script over hundreds of years.

List of Ancient Indian Scripts

Some of the most momentous developments in Indian epigraphy took place in the 1830s. A list of
Ancient Indian Scripts are discussed in brief below:

Source - NCERT

Indus Script
 Brahmi Script may be possibly derived from the Indus Valley Script.
 The Indus script was found in Harappa at around 1900 BC, whereas the first Brahmi and
Kharosthi inscriptions were at nearly 500 BC.
 Harappans knew how to write, and most of their seals contain some form of script.
 But unfortunately, no one has yet been able to decipher that script.
 The Indus script is an undeciphered script of the ancient world.

Brahmi Script
 Brahmi is the ancestor of the Brahmic family of scripts, which includes all Indian scripts, viz.
Devanagari, Odia, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu etc. and also ancient scripts in Sri Lanka, Burma, and
south-east Asian countries: Java, Sumatra, Cambodia.
 Present alphabets of Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia are derived from Brahmi.
 The Ashokan inscriptions dating to the third century BCE used the Brahmi script, the earliest
evidence of the use of Brahmi.
  Most Asokan inscriptions were in the Prakrit language, while those in the northwest of the
subcontinent were in Aramaic and Greek.
 Most Prakrit inscriptions were written in the Brahmi script; however, some, in the northwest,
were written in Kharosthi.
 It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James
Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.

Kharosthi Script
 Kharosthi was one of the major scripts of the northwest from 3rd century BCE to 3rd century
CE.
 Kharosthi script was used extensively by the Indo-Greek, Scytho-Parthian rulers in their coins
together with Greek script.
 The Kushanas used the Kharosthi script in their inscriptions and coins.
 It was written from right to left in horizontal lines.
 Kharoshti was deciphered by James Prinsep and others around the middle of the 19th century.

Devanagari Script
 The sounds of spoken Hindi are generally written in Devanagari script, which is also used to
write Sanskrit, Nepali, and Marathi.
 Devanagari's characters hang from a horizontal line (called the head stroke) written at the top of
the character.
 Unlike English letters, which are written up from a line below them.
 This writing system is a combination of syllabary and alphabet.
 It is written from the left to right direction.

Grantha Script
 A number of Grantha characters are nearly the same as the equivalent Tamil characters.
 However, it is to be noted that there exist subtle differences from the Tamil Equivalent.
 The Grantha script which ultimately derives from the ancient Asokan Brahmi script is a major
script living in South India, especially in the State of Tamil Nadu, India and in Sri Lanka.
Takri Script
 The Takri script derives from the Sarada script and was used in the western regions of the
Himalayas.
 By the early 20th century, the Takri script has been replaced by Devanagari.
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Home General Knowledge History

List of Ancient Indian Scripts

All Indian scripts are derived from Brahmi. There are three main families of scripts: Devanagari; Dravidian;
and Grantha. There are many languages in the Ancient Indian script, such as Sanskrit, Pali, and Hindi. In this
article, we are giving the list of Ancient Indian Scripts, which is very useful for the competitive examinations
like UPSC-prelims, SSC, State Services, NDA, CDS, and Railways etc.

SHAKEEL ANWAR
UPDATED: JUL 25, 2018 11:56 IST

List of Ancient Indian Scripts

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There are many languages in the Ancient Indian scripts, such as Sanskrit, Pali, and Hindi. Not many
people know these languages anymore. But, it’s very important to understand it because it can
teach important stories that were written in these languages that no one tells anymore. These
stories are related to the gods and goddess, culture, and stories about India.

In India, majority of languages are written in Brahmi-derived scripts such, as Devanagari, Tamil,
Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Eastern Nagari - Assamese/Bengali, etc., except Urdu which is written in a
script from Arabic, and Santhali use independent scripts.
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List of Ancient Indian Scripts
1. Indus Script

It refers to the script used by the people belonging to the Indus valley civilisation. It has not been
deciphered yet. Some people have argued that this script was the predecessor of the Brahmi script.
This script is an example of Boustrophedon style as in one line it is written from left to right while in
others it is written from right to left.

2. Brahmi Script

Brahmi is the originator of most of the present Indian scripts, including Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil,
and Malayalam etc. It developed into two broad types in Northern and Southern India, in the
Northern one being more angular and the Southern one being more circular. It was deciphered in
1937 by James Princep. Its best examples are found in the rock-cut edicts of Asoka.

3. Kharosthi Script

It is the sister script and contemporary of Brahmi. It was written from right to left. It was used in the
Gandhara culture of North-Western India and is sometimes also called the Gandhari Script. Its
inscriptions have been found in the form of Buddhist Texts from present clay Afghanistan and
Pakistan.

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4. Gupta Script
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It is also known as the Late Brahmi script. It was used for writing Sanskrit in the Gupta period. It
gave rise to the Nagari, Sarada and Siddham scripts which in turn gave rise to the most important
scripts of India such as Devanagari, Bengali etc.

5. Sarada Script

It was a Western variant of the Gupta script. It evolved into Kashmiri and Gurmukhi (now used for
writing Punjabi) scripts. It was also used for writing Sanskrit. It is now rarely used.

6. Nagari Script

It was an Eastern variant of the Gupta script. It is an early form of the Devanagari script. It branched
off into many other scripts such as Devanagari, Bengali, and Tibetan etc. It was used to write both
Prakrit and Sanskrit.

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7. Devanagari Script

It is the main script at present to write standard Hindi, Marathi and Nepali as well as Santhali,
Konkani and many other Indian languages. It is also used presently to write Sanskrit and is one of
the most used writing systems in the world. It is composed of Deva meaning, (God) and Nagari
meaning, (city), which meant that it, was both religious and urbane or sophisticated.

8. Kalinga Script

Kalinga was the ancient name of Odisha and this script was used to write an ancient form of Oriya. It
is visually close to the original Brahmi. Oriya language presently uses a different script, which has
been derived from Bengali script.

9. Grantha Script

It is one of the earliest Southern scripts to originate from Brahmi. It branched off into Tamil and
Malayalam scripts, which are still used to write those languages, It is also the predecessor of the
Sinhala script used in Sri Lanka. A variant of Grantha called Pallava was taken by Indian merchants
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in Indonesia, where it led to the development of many South-East Asian scripts. It was used in Tamil
Nadu to write the Sanskrit Granthas and hence, was named Grantha.

10. Vatteluttu Script

It was a script derived from the Brahmi and was used in the Southern part of India. It was used to
write Tamil and Malayalam. It removed those signs from Brahmi, which were not needed for writing
the Southern languages. Presently, both Tamil and Malayalam have moved on to their own Grantha
derived scripts.

11. Kadamba Script

It is a descendant of Brahmi and marks the birth of the dedicated Kannada script. It led to the
development of modern Kannada and Telugu scripts. It was used to write Sanskrit, Konkani,
Kannada and Marathi.

12. Tamil Script

It is the script used to write the Tamil language in India and Sri Lanka. It evolved from Grantha, the
Southern form of Brahmi. It is a syllabic language and not alphabetic. It is written from left to right.

According to the epigraphers- All Indian scripts are derived from Brahmi. There are three main
families of scripts:

1. Devanagari, which is the basis of the languages of northern and western India: Hindi, Gujarati,
Bengali, Marathi, Dogri, Panjabi, etc.

2. Dravidian which is the basis of Telugu, Kannada

3. Grantha is a subsection of the Dravidian languages such as Tamil and Malayalam, but is not as
important as the other two.

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