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Brahmi script
Brahmi (/ˈbrɑːmi/; IAST: Brāhmī, in Brahmi script: , "Brāhmī"), developed in the mid-1st millennium BCE, is the oldest known
writing system of Ancient India, with the exception of the undeciphered Indus script.[2] Brahmi is an abugida that thrived in the Indian
Brāhmī
subcontinent and uses a system of diacritical marks to associate vowels with consonant symbols. It evolved into a host of other scripts,
called the Brahmic scripts, that continue to be in use today in South and Southeast Asia.[3][4][5]

The earliest (undisputedly dated) and best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dating to
250–232 BCE. The first successful attempts at deciphering Brahmi were made in 1836 by Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen, who used
the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coins of Indo-Greek kings Agathocles and Pantaleon to correctly identify several Brahmi letters.[6] The script
was fully deciphered in 1837 by James Prinsep, an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the East India Company, with the help of
Alexander Cunningham.[7][6][8] The origin of the script is still much debated, with most scholars stating that Brahmi was derived from or
at least influenced by one or more contemporary Semitic scripts, while others favor the idea of an indigenous origin or connection to the Brahmi script on Ashoka Pillar (circa
much older and as-yet undeciphered Indus script of the Indus Valley Civilization.[9][10] 250 BCE).

Brahmi was at one time referred to in English as the "pin-man" script,[11] that is "stick figure" script. It was known by a variety of other Type Abugida
names[12] until the 1880s when Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie, based on an observation by Gabriel Devéria, Languages Sanskrit, Prakrit,
associated it with the Brahmi script, the first in a list of scripts mentioned in the Lalitavistara Sūtra. Thence the name was adopted in Tamil, Kannada,
the influential work of Georg Bühler, albeit in the variant form "Brahma".[13] The Gupta script of the fifth century is sometimes called Saka, Tocharian
"Late Brahmi".
Time 4th or 3rd century
period BCE[1][a] to 5th
The Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants classified together as the Brahmic scripts. Dozens of modern scripts used
across South Asia have descended from Brahmi, making it one of the world's most influential writing traditions.[14] One survey found 198 century CE
scripts that ultimately derive from it.[15] The script was associated with its own Brahmi numerals, which ultimately provided the graphic Parent Proto-Sinaitic script[b]
forms for the Hindu–Arabic numeral system now used through most of the world.[16] systems
Phoenician
alphabet[b]

Contents Aramaic
alphabet[b]
Texts
Origins Brāhmī
Semitic model hypothesis
Indigenous origin theory Child Gupta and numerous
systems descendant writing
Debate on time depth
Origin of the name systems
History Sister Kharoṣṭhī
Decipherment systems
Southern Brahmi Direction Left-to-right
Red Sea and Southeast Asia
ISO 15924 Brah, 300
Characteristics
Consonants Unicode Brahmi
alias
Conjunct consonants
Vowels Unicode U+11000–U+1107F (h
Punctuation range ttps://www.unicode.or
Early Brahmi or "Ashokan Brahmi" (3rd-1st century BCE) g/charts/PDF/U11000.
Independent vowels pdf)
Consonants
Some famous inscriptions in the Early Brahmi script [a] Recent claims of earlier
fragmentary inscriptions on potsherds
Middle Brahmi or "Kushana Brahmi" (1st-3rd centuries CE)
Independent vowels are still disputed: see Brahmi
Consonants script#History
Examples
[b] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic
Late Brahmi or "Gupta Brahmi" (4th-6th centuries CE)
scripts is not universally agreed
Independent vowels
upon.
Consonants
Examples
Descendants
Unicode and digitization
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
The Sohgaura copper plate
inscription in the Brahmi script, 3rd
Texts century BCE.

The Brahmi script is mentioned in the ancient Indian texts of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, as well as their Chinese
translations.[17][18] For example, the Lipisala samdarshana parivarta lists 64 lipi (scripts), with the Brahmi script starting the list. The Lalitavistara Sūtra states that young
Siddhartha, the future Gautama Buddha (~500 BCE), mastered philology, Brahmi and other scripts from the Brahmin Lipikāra and Deva Vidyāiṃha at a school.[19][17]

A list of eighteen ancient scripts is found in the texts of Jainism, such as the Pannavana Sutra (2nd century BCE) and the Samavayanga Sutra (3rd century BCE).[20][21] These
Jaina script lists include Brahmi at number 1 and Kharoṣṭhi at number 4 but also Javanaliya (probably Greek) and others not found in the Buddhist lists.[21]

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Origins
While the contemporary Kharoṣṭhī script is widely accepted to be a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet, the genesis
of the Brahmi script is less straightforward. Salomon reviewed existing theories in 1998,[3] while Falk provided an
overview in 1993.[22]

Early theories proposed a pictographic-acrophonic origin for the Brahmi script, on the model of the Egyptian
hieroglyphic script. These ideas however have lost credence, as they are "purely imaginative and speculative".[23]
Similar ideas have tried to connect the Brahmi script with the Indus script, but they remain unproven, and
particularly suffer from the fact that the Indus script is as yet undeciphered.[23]

An origin in Semitic scripts (usually the Aramaic or Phoenician alphabet) has been proposed by some scholars
since the publications by Albrecht Weber (1856) and Georg Bühler's On the origin of the Indian Brahma alphabet
(1895).[24][4] Bühler's ideas have been particularly influential, though even by the 1895 date of his opus on the
An early theory of pictographic-acrophonic origin of the
subject, he could identify no less than five competing theories of the origin, one positing an indigenous origin and
Brahmi script, on the model of the Egyptian hieroglyphic
the others deriving it from various Semitic models.[25] script (Alexander Cunningham, 19th century).

The most disputed point about the origin of the Brahmi script has long been whether it was a purely indigenous
development or was borrowed or derived from scripts that originated outside India. Goyal (1979)[26] noted that most proponents of the indigenous view are Indian scholars,
whereas the theory of Semitic origin is held by "nearly all" Western scholars, and Salomon agrees with Goyal that there has been "nationalist bias" and "imperialist bias" on the two
respective sides of the debate.[27] In spite of this, the view of indigenous development had been prevalent among British scholars writing prior to Bühler: A passage by Alexander
Cunningham, one of the earliest indigenous origin proponents, suggests that, in his time, the indigenous origin was a preference of British scholars in opposition to the "unknown
Western" origin preferred by continental scholars.[25] Cunningham in the seminal Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum of 1877 speculated that Brahmi characters were derived from,
among other things, a pictographic principle based on the human body,[28] but Bühler noted that by 1891, Cunningham considered the origins of the script uncertain.

Most scholars believe that Brahmi was likely derived from or influenced by a Semitic script model, with Aramaic being a leading candidate.[2] However, the issue is not settled due
to the lack of direct evidence and unexplained differences between Aramaic, Kharoṣṭhī, and Brahmi.[29] Though Brahmi and the Kharoṣṭhī script share some general features, but
the differences between the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts are "much greater than their similarities," and "the overall differences between the two render a direct linear development
connection unlikely", states Richard Salomon.[30]

Virtually all authors accept that regardless of the origins, the differences between the Indian script and those proposed to have influenced it are significant. The degree of Indian
development of the Brahmi script in both the graphic form and the structure has been extensive. It is also widely accepted that theories about the grammar of the Vedic language
probably had a strong influence on this development. Some authors – both Western and Indian – suggest that Brahmi was borrowed or inspired by a Semitic script, invented in a
short few years during the reign of Ashoka and then used widely for Ashokan inscriptions.[29] In contrast, some authors reject the idea of foreign influence.[31][32]

Heliodorus pillar in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Installed about 120 BCE and now named after the Indo-Greek, the pillar's Brahmi-script inscription states that
Heliodorus is a Bhagvatena (devotee) of Vishnu. A couplet in it closely paraphrases a Sanskrit verse from the Mahabharata.[33][34]

Bruce Trigger states that Brahmi likely emerged from the Aramaic script but with extensive local development but there is no evidence of a direct common source.[35] According to
Trigger, Brahmi was in use before the Ashoka pillars, at least by 4th or 5th century BCE in Sri Lanka and India, while Kharoṣṭhī was used only in northwest South Asia (eastern
parts of modern Afghanistan and neighboring regions of Pakistan) for a while before it died out in ancient times.[35] According to Salomon, the evidence of Kharosthi script's use is
found primarily in Buddhist records and those of Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian and Kushana dynasty era. The Kharosthi likely fell out of general use in or about the
3rd-century CE.[30]

Justeson and Stephens proposed that this inherent vowel system in Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī developed by transmission of a Semitic abjad through the recitation of its letter values.
The idea is that learners of the source alphabet recite the sounds by combining the consonant with an unmarked vowel, e.g. /kə/,/kʰə/,/gə/, and in the process of borrowing into
another language, these syllables are taken to be the sound values of the symbols. They also accepted the idea that Brahmi was based on a North Semitic model.[36]

Semitic model hypothesis

Many scholars link the origin of Brahmi to Semitic script models, particularly Aramaic.[24] The explanation of how this might have happened, the particular Semitic script and the
chronology have been the subject of much debate. Bühler followed Max Weber in connecting it particularly to Phoenician and proposed an early 8th century BCE date[38] for the
borrowing. A link to the South Semitic script, a less prominent branch of the Semitic script family, has occasionally been proposed but has not gained much acceptance.[39] Finally,
the Aramaic script being the prototype for Brahmi has been the more preferred hypothesis because of its geographic proximity to the Indian subcontinent, and its influence likely
arising because Aramaic was the bureaucratic language of the Achaemenid empire. However, this hypothesis does not explain the mystery of why two very different scripts,
Kharoṣṭhī and Brahmi, developed from the same Aramaic. A possible explanation might be that Ashoka created an imperial script for his edicts, but there is no evidence to support
this conjecture.[40]

Bühler's theory
According to the Semitic hypothesis as laid out by Bühler in 1898, the oldest Brahmi inscriptions were derived from a Phoenician prototype.[41][note 1] Salomon states Bühler's
arguments are "weak historical, geographical, and chronological justifications for a Phoenician prototype". Discoveries made since Bühler's proposal, such as of six Mauryan
inscriptions in Aramaic, suggest Bühler's proposal about Phoenician as weak. It is more likely that Aramaic, which was virtually certain the prototype for Kharoṣṭhī, also may have
been the basis for Brahmi. However, it is unclear why the ancient Indians would have developed two very different scripts.[40]

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According to Bühler, Brahmi added symbols for certain sounds not found in Semitic languages, and either deleted or repurposed
symbols for Aramaic sounds not found in Prakrit. For example, Aramaic lacks the phonetic retroflex feature that appears among
Prakrit dental stops, such as ḍ, and in Brahmi the symbols of the retroflex and non-retroflex consonants are graphically very
similar, as if both had been derived from a single prototype. (See Tibetan alphabet for a similar later development.) Aramaic did not
have Brahmi's aspirated consonants (kh, th, etc.), whereas Brahmi did not have Aramaic's emphatic consonants (q, ṭ, ṣ), and it
appears that these unneeded emphatic letters filled in for some of Brahmi's aspirates: Aramaic q for Brahmi kh, Aramaic ṭ (Θ) for
Brahmi th (ʘ), etc. And just where Aramaic did not have a corresponding emphatic stop, p, Brahmi seems to have doubled up for
the corresponding aspirate: Brahmi p and ph are graphically very similar, as if taken from the same source in Aramaic p. Bühler saw
a systematic derivational principle for the other aspirates ch, jh, ph, bh, and dh, which involved adding a curve or upward hook to
the right side of the character (which has been speculated to derive from h, ), while d and ṭ (not to be confused with the Semitic
emphatic ṭ) were derived by back formation from dh and ṭh.[43]

Bühler's aspirate derivations

IAST -aspirate +aspirate origin of aspirate according to Bühler
k/kh Semitic emphatic (qoph)

g/gh Semitic emphatic (heth) (hook addition in Bhattiprolu script) Left pillar No. 9 of the Great Chatya at
Karla Caves. This pillar was donated by a
c/ch curve addition Yavana (Indo-Greek), circa 120 CE, like
j/jh hook addition with some alteration five other pillars. The inscription of this
pillar reads: "dhenukākaṭa yavanasa /
p/ph curve addition yasavadhanānaṃ / thabo danaṃ" i.e. "
b/bh hook addition with some alteration (This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana
Yasavadhana from Denukakata".[37]
t/th Semitic emphatic (teth) Below: detail of the word "Ya-va-na-sa"
d/dh unaspirated glyph back formed ( , adjectival form of "Yavana",
Brahmi script).
ṭ/ṭh unaspirated glyph back formed as if aspirated glyph with curve

ḍ/ḍh curve addition

The following table lists the correspondences between Brahmi and North Semitic scripts.[44][45]

Comparison of North Semitic and Brahmi scripts[45][note 2]

Phoenician Aramaic Value Brahmi Value

* a

b [b] ba

g [ɡ] ga

d [d] dha

h [h], M.L. ha

w [w], M.L. va

z [z] ja

ḥ [ħ] gha

ṭ [tˤ] tha

y [j], M.L. ya

k [k] ka

l [l] la

m [m] ma

n [n] na

s [s] ṣa

ʿ [ʕ], M.L. e

p [p] pa

ṣ [sˤ] ca

q [q] kha

r [r] ra

š [ʃ] śa

t [t] ta

Bühler states that both Phoenician and Brahmi had three voiceless sibilants, but because the alphabetical ordering was lost, the correspondences among them are not clear. Bühler
was able to suggest Brahmi derivatives corresponding to all of the 22 North Semitic characters, though clearly, as Bühler himself recognized, some are more confident than others.
He tended to place much weight on phonetic congruence as a guideline, for example connecting c to tsade rather than kaph , as preferred by many of his predecessors.

One of the key problems with a Phoenician derivation is the lack of evidence for historical contact with Phoenicians in the relevant period.[40] Bühler explained this by proposing
that the initial borrowing of Brahmi characters dates back considerably earlier than the earliest known evidence, as far back as 800 BCE, contemporary with the Phoenician glyph
forms that he mainly compared. Bühler cited a near-modern practice of writing Brahmic scripts informally without vowel diacritics as a possible continuation of this earlier abjad-
like stage in development.[38]

The weakest forms of the Semitic hypothesis are similar to Gnanadesikan's trans-cultural diffusion view of the development of Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī, in which the idea of
alphabetic sound representation was learned from the Aramaic-speaking Persians, but much of the writing system was a novel development tailored to the phonology of Prakrit.[47]

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Another evidence cited in favor of Persian influence has been the Hultzsch proposal in 1925 that the Prakrit/Sanskrit word for writing
itself, lipi is similar to the Old Persian word dipi, suggesting a probable borrowing.[48][49] A few of the Ashoka edicts from the region
nearest the Persian empire use dipi as the Prakrit word for writing, which appears as lipi elsewhere, and this geographic distribution has
long been taken, at least back to Bühler's time, as an indication that the standard lipi form is a later alteration that appeared as it diffused
away from the Persian sphere of influence. Persian dipi itself is thought to be an Elamite loanword.[50]

Falk's theory
Falk's 1993 book Schrift im Alten Indien is considered a definitive study on writing in ancient India.[51][52] Falk's section on the origins of
the Brahmi script[22] features an extensive review of the literature up to that time. Falk also puts forth his own ideas. As have a number
of other authors, Falk sees the basic writing system of Brahmi as being derived from the Kharoṣṭhī script, itself a derivative of Aramaic.
At the time of his writing, the Ashoka edicts were the oldest confidently dateable examples of Brahmi, and he perceives in them "a clear
development in language from a faulty linguistic style to a well honed one"[53] over time, which he takes to indicate that the script had
been recently developed.[22][54] Falk deviates from the mainstream of opinion in seeing Greek as also being a significant source for
Brahmi. On this point particularly, Salomon disagrees with Falk, and after presenting evidence of very different methodology between
Greek and Brahmi notation of vowel quantity, he states "it is doubtful whether Brahmi derived even the basic concept from a Greek Some common variants of Brahmic
prototype".[55] Further, adds Salomon, in a "limited sense Brahmi can be said to be derived from Kharosthi, but in terms of the actual letters
forms of the characters, the differences between the two Indian scripts are much greater than the similarities".[56]

Falk also dated the origin of Kharoṣṭhī to no earlier than 325 BCE, based on a proposed connection to the Greek conquest.[57] Salomon questions Falk's arguments as to the date of
Kharoṣṭhī and writes that it is "speculative at best and hardly constitutes firm grounds for a late date for Kharoṣṭhī. The stronger argument for this position is that we have no
specimen of the script before the time of Ashoka, nor any direct evidence of intermediate stages in its development; but of course this does not mean that such earlier forms did not
exist, only that, if they did exist, they have not survived, presumably because they were not employed for monumental purposes before Ashoka".[54]

Unlike Bühler, Falk does not provide details of which and how the presumptive prototypes may have been mapped to the individual
characters of Brahmi. Further, states Salomon, Falk accepts there are anomalies in phonetic value and diacritics in Brahmi script that are
not found in the presumed Kharoṣṭhī script source. Falk attempts to explain these anomalies by reviving the Greek influence hypothesis,
a hypothesis that had previously fallen out of favor.[54][61]

Hartmut Scharfe, in his 2002 review of Kharoṣṭī and Brāhmī scripts, concurs with Salomon's questioning of Falk's proposal, and states,
"the pattern of the phonemic analysis of the Sanskrit language achieved by the Vedic scholars is much closer to the Brahmi script than Coin of Agathocles with Hindu
the Greek alphabet".[10] deities, in Greek and Brahmi.
Obv Balarama-Samkarshana with
Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ
Indigenous origin theory ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ.
Rev Vasudeva-Krishna with Brahmi
The idea of an indigenous origin such as a connection to the Indus script is supported by some Western and Indian scholars and writers. legend: Rājane
The theory that there are similarities to the Indus script was suggested by early European scholars such as the archaeologist John Agathukleyesa "King Agathocles".
Marshall[62] and the Assyriologist Stephen Langdon,[63] and it continues to be suggested by scholars and writers such as (among others) Circa 180 BCE.
the computer scientist Subhash Kak, the German Indologist Georg Feuerstein, the American teacher David Frawley, the British
archaeologist Raymond Allchin, and the social anthropologist Jack Goody.[64][65][66]

Raymond Allchin states that there is a powerful argument against the idea that the Brahmi script has Semitic borrowing because the
whole structure and conception is quite different. He suggests that the origin may have been purely indigenous with the Indus script as
its predecessor.[67] However, Allchin and Erdosy later in 1995 expressed the opinion that there was as yet insufficient evidence to resolve
the question.[68] G.R. Hunter in his book The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts (1934)
proposed a derivation of the Brahmi alphabets from the Indus Script, the match being considerably higher than that of Aramaic in his Coin of the Vemaka or Audumbaras
estimation.[69] tribe. Obverse: Bhagavata
mahadevasa rajarana in Kharosthi.
Subhash Kak disagrees with the proposed Semitic origins of the script,[70] instead states that the interaction between the Indic and the Reverse: Bhagavata-mahadevasa
rajarana in Brahmi. 1st century
Semitic worlds before the rise of the Semitic scripts might imply a reverse process.[71] However, the chronology thus presented and the
BCE.[58]
notion of an unbroken tradition of literacy is opposed by a majority of academics who support an indigenous origin. Evidence for a
continuity between Indus and Brahmi has also been seen in graphic similarities between
Brahmi and the late Indus script, where the ten most common ligatures correspond with the
form of one of the ten most common glyphs in Brahmi.[72] There is also corresponding
evidence of continuity in the use of numerals.[73] Further support for this continuity comes
from statistical analysis of the relationship carried out by Das.[74] Salomon considered simple
graphic similarities between characters to be insufficient evidence for a connection without
knowing the phonetic values of the Indus script, though he found apparent similarities in
patterns of compounding and diacritical modification to be "intriguing." However, he felt that
it was premature to explain and evaluate them due to the large chronological gap between the
scripts and the thus far indecipherable nature of the Indus script.[75]
A 2nd-century BCE Tamil Brahmi
inscription from Arittapatti, Madurai
The main obstacle to this idea is the lack of evidence for writing during the millennium and a
India. The southern state of Tamil
half between the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation around 1500 BCE and the first
Nadu has emerged as a major
A proposed connection between the widely accepted appearance of Brahmi in the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE. Iravathan Mahadevan source of Brahmi inscriptions dated
Brahmi and Indus scripts, made in
makes the point that even if one takes the latest dates of 1500 BCE for the Indus script and between 3rd to 1st-centuries
the 19th century by Alexander
earliest claimed dates of Brahmi around 500 BCE, a thousand years still separates the two.[76] BCE.[59][60]
Cunningham.
Furthermore, there is no accepted decipherment of the Indus script, which makes theories
based on claimed decipherments tenuous. A promising possible link between the Indus script
and later writing traditions may be in the megalithic graffiti symbols of the South Indian megalithic culture, which may have some overlap with the Indus symbol inventory and
persisted in use up at least through the appearance of the Brahmi and Tamil Brahmi scripts up into the third century CE. These graffiti usually appear singly, though on occasion
may be found in groups of two or three, and are thought to have been family, clan, or religious symbols.[77] In 1935, C.L. Fábri proposed that symbols found on Mauryan punch-
marked coins were remnants of the Indus script that had survived the collapse of the Indus civilization.[78] Iravatham Mahadevan, decipherer of Tamil-Brahmi and a noted expert
on the Indus script, has supported the idea that both those semiotic traditions may have some continuity with the Indus script, but regarding the idea of continuity with Brahmi, he
has categorically stated that he does not believe that theory "at all".[76]

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Another form of the indigenous origin theory is that Brahmi was invented ex nihilo, entirely independently from either Semitic models or the Indus script, though Salomon found
these theories to be wholly speculative in nature.[79]

Foreign origination
Pāṇini (6th to 4th century BCE) mentions lipi, the Indian word for writing scripts in his definitive work on Sanskrit grammar, the Ashtadhyayi.
According to Scharfe, the words lipi and libi are borrowed from the Old Persian dipi, in turn derived from Sumerian dup.[49][80] To describe his own
Edicts, Ashoka used the word Lipī, now generally simply translated as "writing" or "inscription". It is thought the word "lipi", which is also
orthographed "dipi" in the two Kharosthi-version of the rock edicts,[note 3] comes from an Old Persian prototype dipî also meaning "inscription",
which is used for example by Darius I in his Behistun inscription,[note 4] suggesting borrowing and diffusion.[81][82][83]

Scharfe adds that the best evidence, at the time of his review, is that no script was used or ever known in India, aside from the Persian-dominated The word Lipī ( )
Northwest where Aramaic was used, before around 300 BCE because Indian tradition "at every occasion stresses the orality of the cultural and used by Ashoka to
literary heritage."[49] describe his "Edicts".
Brahmi script (Li= La+i;
pī= Pa+ii). The word
Megasthenes observations would be of Old Persian
origin ("Dipi").
Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador to the Mauryan court in Northeastern India only a quarter century before Ashoka, noted "… and this among a
people who have no written laws, who are ignorant even of writing, and regulate everything by memory."[84] This has been variously and
contentiously interpreted by many authors. Ludo Rocher almost entirely dismisses Megasthenes as unreliable, questioning the wording used by Megasthenes' informant and
Megasthenes' interpretation of them.[85] Timmer considers it to reflect a misunderstanding that the Mauryans were illiterate "based upon the fact that Megasthenes rightly
observed that the laws were unwritten and that oral tradition played such an important part in India."[86]

Some proponents of the indigenous origin theories question the reliability and interpretation of comments made by Megasthenes (as quoted by Strabo in the Geographica XV.i.53).
For one, the observation may only apply in the context of the kingdom of "Sandrakottos" (Chandragupta). Elsewhere in Strabo (Strab. XV.i.39), Megasthenes is said to have noted
that it was a regular custom in India for the "philosopher" caste (presumably Brahmins) to submit "anything useful which they have committed to writing" to kings,[87] but this
detail does not appear in parallel extracts of Megasthenes found in Arrian and Diodorus Siculus.[88][89] The implication of writing per se is also not totally clear in the original Greek
as the term "συντάξῃ" (cognate with the English word "syntax") can be read as a generic "composition" or "arrangement", rather than a written composition in particular. Nearchus,
a contemporary of Megasthenes, noted, a few decades prior, the use of cotton fabric for writing in Northern India. Indologists have variously speculated that this might have been
Kharoṣṭhī or the Aramaic alphabet. Salomon regards the evidence from Greek sources to be inconclusive.[90] Strabo himself notes this inconsistency regarding reports on the use of
writing in India (XV.i.67).

Debate on time depth

Kenneth Norman (2005) suggests that Brahmi was devised over a longer period of time predating Ashoka's rule:[91]

"Support for this idea of pre-Ashokan development has been given very recently by the discovery of
sherds at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, inscribed with small numbers of characters which seem to be
Brāhmī. These sherds have been dated, by both Carbon 14 and Thermo-luminescence dating, to pre-
Ashokan times, perhaps as much as much as two centuries before Ashoka."[92]

Jack Goody (1987) had similarly suggested that ancient India likely had a "very old culture of writing" along with its oral tradition of
composing and transmitting knowledge, because the Vedic literature is too vast, consistent and complex to have been entirely
created, memorized, accurately preserved and spread without a written system.[93][94]

Opinions on this point, the possibility that there may not have been any writing scripts including Brahmi during the Vedic age,
given the quantity and quality of the Vedic literature, are divided. While Falk (1993) disagrees with Goody,[95] while Walter Ong and
John Hartley (2012) concur.[96] concur, not so much based on the difficulty of orally preserving the Vedic hymns, but on the basis
that it is highly unlikely that Panini's grammar was composed Johannes Bronkhorst (2002) takes the intermediate position that the
oral transmission of the Vedic hymns may well have been achieved orally, but that the development of Panini's grammar
presupposes writing (consistent with a development of Indian writing in c. the 4th century BCE).[51]

Origin of the name

Several divergent accounts of the origin of the name "Brahmi" appear in history and legend. Several Sutras of Jainism such as the Connections between Phoenician (4th
Vyakhya Pragyapti Sutra, the Samvayanga Sutra and the Pragyapna Sutra of the Jain Agamas include a list of 18 writing scripts column) and Brahmi (5th column). Note
known to teachers before the Mahavira was born, with the Brahmi script (bambhī in the original Prakrit) leading all these lists. The that 6th-to-4th-century BCE Aramaic (not
Brahmi script is missing from the 18 script list in the surviving versions of two later Jaina Sutras, namely the Vishesha Avashyaka shown) is in many cases intermediate in
form between the two.
and the Kalpa Sutra. Jain legend recounts that 18 writing scripts were taught by their first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha to his
daughter Brahmi, she emphasized Brahmi as the main script as she taught others, and therefore the name Brahmi for the script
comes after her name.[97]

A Chinese Buddhist account of the 6th century CE attributes its creation to the god Brahma, though Monier Monier-Williams, Sylvain Lévi and others thought it was more likely to
have been given the name because it was moulded by the Brahmins.[98][99]

The term Brahmi appears in ancient Indian texts in different contexts. According to the rules of the Sanskrit language, it is a feminine word which literally means "of Brahma" or
"the female energy of the Brahman".[100] In other texts such as the Mahabharata, it appears in the sense of a goddess, particularly for Saraswati as the goddess of speech and
elsewhere as "personified Shakti (energy) of Brahma".[101]

History
The earliest known full inscriptions of Brahmi are in Prakrit, dated to be from 3rd to 1st-century BCE, particularly the Edicts of Ashoka, c. 250 BCE.[102] Prakrit records
predominate the epigraphic records discovered in the Indian subcontinent through about 1st-century CE.[102] The earliest known Brahmi inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st-
century BCE, such as the few discovered in Ayodhya, Ghosundi and Hathibada (both near Chittorgarh).[103][note 5] Ancient inscriptions have also been discovered in many North
and Central Indian sites, occasionally in South India as well, that are in hybrid Sanskrit-Prakrit language called "Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit".[note 6] These are dated by modern
techniques to between 1st and 4th-century CE.[106][107] Surviving ancient records of the Brahmi script are found as engravings on pillars, temple walls, metal plates, terra-cotta,
coins, crystals and manuscripts.[108][107]

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One of the most important recent developments regarding the origin of Brahmi has been the discovery of Brahmi characters inscribed on
fragments of pottery from the trading town of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, which have been dated between the sixth to early fourth
century BCE.[109] Coningham et al. in 1996,[110] stated that the script on the Anuradhapura inscriptions is Brahmi, but stated that the
language was a Prakrit rather than a Dravidian language. The historical sequence of the specimens was interpreted to indicate an
evolution in the level of stylistic refinement over several centuries, and they concluded that the Brahmi script may have arisen out of
"mercantile involvement" and that the growth of trade networks in Sri Lanka was correlated with its first appearance in the area.[110]
Salomon in his 1998 review states that the Anuradhapura inscriptions support the theory that Brahmi existed in South Asia before the
Mauryan times, with studies favoring the 4th-century BCE, but some doubts remain whether the inscriptions might be intrusive into the The Prakrit word "Dha-ṃ-ma"
potsherds from a later date.[109] Indologist Harry Falk has argued that the Edicts of Ashoka represent an older stage of Brahmi, whereas (Dharma) in the Brahmi script, as
certain paleographic features of even the earliest Anuradhapura inscriptions are likely to be later, and so these potsherds may date from inscribed by Ashoka in his Edicts.
Topra Kalan pillar, now in New Delhi
after 250 BCE.[111]
(circa 3rd-century BCE).
More recently in 2013, Rajan and Yatheeskumar published excavations at Porunthal and Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu, where numerous
both Tamil-Brahmi and "Prakrit-Brahmi" inscriptions and fragments have been found.[112] Their stratigraphic analysis combined with
radiocarbon dates of paddy grains and charcoal samples indicated that inscription contexts date to as far back as the 6th and perhaps 7th centuries BCE.[113] As these were
published very recently, they have as yet not been commented on extensively in the literature. Indologist Harry Falk has criticized Rajan's claims as "particularly ill-informed"; Falk
argues that some of the earliest supposed inscriptions are not Brahmi letters at all, but merely misinterpreted non-linguistic Megalithic graffiti symbols, which were used in South
India for several centuries during the pre-literate era.[114]

Decipherment
Besides a few inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic (which were only discovered in the 20th century), the Edicts of Ashoka were
written in the Brahmi script and sometimes in the Kharoshthi script in the northwest, which had both become extinct around
the 4th century CE, and were yet undeciphered at the time the Edicts were discovered and investigated in the 19th
century.[116][6]

In 1834, some attempts by Rev. J. Stevenson were made to identify intermediate early Brahmi characters from the Karla
Caves (circa 1st century CE) based on their similarities with the Gupta script of the Samudragupta inscription of the
Allahabad pillar (4th century CE) which had just been deciphered, but this led to a mix of good (about 1/3) and bad guesses,
which did not permit proper decipherment of the Brahmi.[117][118]
Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen used the
The first successful attempts at deciphering the ancient Brahmi script of the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE were made in 1836 by
bilingual Greek-Brahmi coinage of Indo-Greek
Norwegian scholar Christian Lassen, who used a bilingual Greek-Brahmi coin of Indo-Greek king Agathocles and similarities
king Agathocles to correctly achieve in 1836 the
with the Pali script to correctly and securely identify several Brahmi letters.[6][119] The matching legends on the bilingual first secure decipherement of several letters of
coins of Agathocles were: the Brahmi script, which was later completed by
James Prinsep.[6]
Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ (Basileōs Agathokleous, "King Agathocles")

Brahmi legend: / (Rajane Agathukleyesa, "King Agathocles").[120]

James Prinsep, an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the East India Company, working with Alexander Cunningham, is
credited to have completely deciphered the Brahmi script.[7][6][8] After acknowledging Lassen's first decipherment,[121]
Prinsep used a bilingual coin of Indo-Greek king Pantaleon to decipher a few more letters.[119] James Prinsep then analysed a
large number of donatory inscriptions on the reliefs in Sanchi, and noted that most of them ended with the same two Brahmi
characters: " ". Prinsep guessed correctly that they stood for "danam", the Sanskrit word for "gift" or "donation", which
permitted to further increase the number of known letters.[122] With the help of Ratna Pâla, a Singhalese Pali scholar and
Consonants of the Brahmi script, and evolution
linguist, Prinsep then completed the full decipherment of the Brahmi script.[123][124][125][126] In a series of results that he
down to modern Devanagari, according to
published in March 1838 Prinsep was able to translate the inscriptions on a large number of rock edicts found around India, James Prinsep, as published in the Journal of
and provide, according to Richard Salomon, a "virtually perfect" rendering of the full Brahmi alphabet.[127][128] the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in March 1838. All
the letters are correctly deciphered, except for
two missing on the right: (ś) and (ṣ).[115]
Southern Brahmi Vowels and compounds here.
Ashokan inscriptions are found all over India and a few regional variants have been observed. The Bhattiprolu alphabet, with
earliest inscriptions dating from a few decades of Ashoka's reign, is believed to have evolved from a southern variant of the
Brahmi alphabet. The language used in these inscriptions, nearly all of which have been found upon Buddhist relics, is exclusively Prakrit, though Telugu proper names have been
identified in some inscriptions. Twenty-three letters have been identified. The letters ga and sa are similar to Mauryan Brahmi, while bha and da resemble those of modern Telugu
script.

Tamil-Brahmi is a variant of the Brahmi alphabet that was in use in South India by about 3rd-century BCE, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Inscriptions attest their use in
parts of Sri Lanka in the same period. The language used in around 70 Southern Brahmi inscriptions discovered in the 20th-century have been identified as a Prakrit
language.[59][60]

In English, the most widely available set of reproductions of Brahmi-script texts found in Sri Lanka is Epigraphia Zeylanica; in volume 1 (1976), many of the inscriptions are dated
from the 3rd to 2nd century BCE.[129]

Unlike the edicts of Ashoka, however, the majority of the inscriptions from this early period in Sri Lanka are found above caves. The language of Sri Lanka Brahmi inscriptions has
been mostly been Prakrit though some Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have also been found, such as the Annaicoddai seal.[130] The earliest widely accepted examples of writing in
Brahmi are found in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.[110]

Red Sea and Southeast Asia

The Khuan Luk Pat inscription discovered in Thailand is in Tamil Brahmi script. Its date is uncertain and has been proposed to be from the early centuries of the common
era.[131][132] According to Frederick Asher, Tamil Brahmi inscriptions on postherds have been found in Quseir al-Qadim and in Berenike, Egypt which suggest that merchant and
trade activity was flourishing in ancient times between India and the Red Sea region.[132] Additional Tamil Brahmi inscription has been found in Khor Rori region of Oman on an
archaeological site storage jar.[132]

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Characteristics
Brahmi is usually written from left to right, as in the case of its descendants. However, an early coin found in Eran is inscribed with Brahmi running from right to left, as in Aramaic.
Several other instances of variation in the writing direction are known, though directional instability is fairly common in ancient writing systems.[133]

Consonants
Brahmi is an abugida, meaning that each letter represents a consonant, while vowels are written with obligatory diacritics called mātrās in Sanskrit, except when the vowels
commence a word. When no vowel is written, the vowel /a/ is understood. This "default short a" is a characteristic shared with Kharosthī, though the treatment of vowels differs in
other respects.

Brahmi consonants.

Conjunct consonants
Special conjunct consonants are used to write consonant clusters such as /pr/ or /rv/. In modern Devanagari the components of a conjunct are written left to right when possible
(when the first consonant has a vertical stem that can be removed at the right), whereas in Brahmi characters are joined vertically downwards.

Kya (vertical assembly Sva (Sa+Va) Kla (Ka+La) Sya (Sa+Ya) Hmī (Ha+Ma+i+i), as in
of consonants "Ka" the word "Brāhmī"
and "Ya" ), as in "Sa- ( ).
kya-mu-nī " ( ,
"Sage of the Shakyas")

Vowels
Vowels following a consonant are inherent or written by diacritics, but initial vowels have dedicated letters. There are three "primary"
vowels in Ashokan Brahmi, which each occur in length-contrasted forms: /a/, /i/, /u/; long vowels are derived from the letters for short
vowels. There are also four "secondary" vowels that do not have the long-short contrast, /e/, /ai/, /o/, /au/.[134] Note though that the
grapheme for /ai/ is derivative from /e/ in a way which parallels the short-long contrast of the primary vowels. However, there are only
nine distinct vowel diacritics, as short /a/ is understood if no vowel is written. The initial vowel symbol for /au/ is also apparently lacking
in the earliest attested phases, even though it has a diacritic. Ancient sources suggest that there were either 11 or 12 vowels enumerated at
the beginning of the character list around the Ashokan era, probably adding either aṃ or aḥ.[135] Later versions of Brahmi add vowels for
four syllabic liquids, short and long /ṛ/ and /ḷ/. Chinese sources indicate that these were later inventions by either Nagarjuna or Brahmi diacritic vowels.
Śarvavarman, a minister of King Hāla.[136]

It has been noted that the basic system of vowel marking common to Brahmi and Kharosthī, in which every consonant is understood to
be followed by a vowel, was well suited to Prakrit,[137] but as Brahmi was adapted to other languages, a special notation called the virāma
was introduced to indicate the omission of the final vowel. Kharoṣṭhī also differs in that the initial vowel representation has a single
generic vowel symbol that is differentiated by diacritics, and long vowels are not distinguished.

The collation order of Brahmi is believed to have been the same as most of its descendant scripts, one based on Shiksha, the traditional
Vedic theory of Sanskrit phonology. This begins the list of characters with the initial vowels (starting with a), then lists a subset of the
The Brahmi symbol for /ka/,
consonants in 5 phonetically-related groups of 5 called vargas, and ends with 4 liquids, 3 sibilants, and a spirant. Thomas Trautmann
modified to represent different
attributes much of the popularity of the Brahmic script family to this "splendidly reasoned" system of arrangement.[138]
vowels

k- kh- g- gh- ṅ- c- ch- j- jh- ñ- ṭ- ṭh- ḍ- ḍh- ṇ- t- th- d- dh- n- p- ph- b- bh- m- y- r- l- v- ś- ṣ- s- h- ḷ-
-a
-ā
-i
-ī
-u
-ū
-e
-o

Punctuation

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Punctuation[140] can be perceived as more of an exception than as a general rule in Asokan Brahmi.
For instance, distinct spaces in between the words appear frequently in the pillar edicts but not so
much in others. ("Pillar edicts" refers to the texts that are inscribed on the stone pillars oftentimes
with the intention of making them public.) The idea of writing each word separately was not
consistently used.
A 1st century BCE/CE inscription from Sanchi: "Vedisakehi daṃtakārehi
rupakaṃmaṃ kataṃ" ( , "Ivory workers from
In the early Brahmi period, the existence of punctuation marks is not very well shown. Each letter
Vidisha have done the carving").[139]
has been written independently with some occasional space between words and longer sections.

In the middle period, the system seems to be developing. The use of a dash and a curved horizontal
line is found. A lotus (flower) mark seems to mark the end, and a circular mark appears to indicate the full stop. There seem to be varieties of full stop.

In the late period, the system of interpunctuation marks gets more complicated. For instance, there are four different forms of vertically slanted double dashes that resemble "//" to
mark the completion of the composition. Despite all the decorative signs that were available during the late period, the signs remained fairly simple in the inscriptions. One of the
possible reasons may be that engraving is restricted while writing is not.

Baums identifies seven different punctuation marks needed for computer representation of Brahmi:[141]

single and double vertical bar (danda) – delimiting clauses and verses
dot, double dot, and horizontal line – delimiting shorter textual units
crescent and lotus – delimiting larger textual units

Early Brahmi or "Ashokan Brahmi" (3rd-1st century BCE)

Brahmi is generally classified in three main types, which represent three historical stages of its evolution over nearly a millenium:[142]

Early Brahmi or "Ashokan Brahmi" (3rd-1st century BCE)

Middle Brahmi or "Kushana Brahmi" (1st-3rd centuries CE)
Late Brahmi or "Gupta Brahmi", also called Gupta script (4th-6th centuries CE)
Early "Ashokan" Brahmi (3rd-1st century BCE) is regular and geometric, and organized in a very rational fashion:

Independent vowels

IAST and IAST and IAST and IAST and

Letter Mātrā Letter Mātrā
Sanskrit IPA Sanskrit IPA Sanskrit IPA Sanskrit IPA

a /ə/ ka /kə/ ā /aː/ kā /kaː/

i /i/ ki /ki/ kī /kiː/ ī /iː/

u /u/ ku /ku/ ū /uː/ kū /kuː/

e /eː/ ke /keː/ o /oː/ ko /koː/

Early Brahmi vowel diacritics.

ai /əi/ kai /kəi/ au /əu/ kau /kəu/

Consonants

Stop Nasal Approximant Fricative

Voicing → Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

Aspiration → No Yes No Yes No Yes

Velar ka /k/ kha /kʰ/ ga /g/ gha /ɡʱ/ ṅa /ŋ/ ha /ɦ/

Palatal ca /c/ cha /cʰ/ ja /ɟ/ jha /ɟʱ/ ña /ɲ/ ya /j/ śa /ɕ/

Retroflex ṭa /ʈ/ ṭha /ʈʰ/ ḍa /ɖ/ ḍha /ɖʱ/ ṇa /ɳ/ ra /r/ ṣa /ʂ/

Dental ta /t ̪/ tha /t ̪ʰ/ da /d̪/ dha /d̪ʱ/ na /n/ la /l/ sa /s/

Labial pa /p/ pha /pʰ/ ba /b/ bha /bʱ/ ma /m/ va /w, ʋ/

The final letter does not fit into the table above; it is ḷa.

Some famous inscriptions in the Early Brahmi script

The Brahmi script was the medium for some of the most famous inscriptions of ancient India, starting with the Edicts of Ashoka, circa 250 BCE.

Birthplace of the historical Buddha

In a particularly famous Edict, the Rummindei Edict in Lumbini, Nepal, Ashoka describes his visit in the 21th year of this year, and designates Lumbini as the birthplace of the
Buddha. He also, for the first time in historical records, uses the epithet "Sakyamuni" (Sage of the Shakyas), to describe the Buddha.[143]

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Rummindei pillar, inscription of Ashoka (circa 248 BCE)
Translation Transliteration Inscription
(English) (original Brahmi script) (Prakrit in the Brahmi script)

When King Devanampriya

Priyadarsin had been anointed
twenty years, he came himself and
worshipped (this spot) because the Devānaṃpiyena Piyadasina lājina vīsati-vasābhisitena

Buddha Shakyamuni was born here.

(He) both caused to be made a atana āgāca mahīyite hida Budhe jāte Sakyamuni ti

stone bearing a horse (?) and

caused a stone pillar to be set up, (in silā vigaḍabhī cā kālāpita silā-thabhe ca usapāpite
order to show) that the Blessed One
was born here. (He) made the hida Bhagavaṃ jāte ti Luṃmini-gāme ubalike kaṭe
village of Lummini free of taxes, and
paying (only) an eighth share (of the aṭha-bhāgiye ca
produce).
— Adapted from transliteration by E. The Rummindei pillar edict in Lumbini.
— The Rummindei Edict, one of Hultzsch,[145]
the Minor Pillar Edicts of
Ashoka.[144]

Heliodorus Pillar inscription

The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India[146] in Vidisha near modern Besnagar, by Heliodorus, an Indo-Greek ambassador of the
Indo-Greek king Antialcidas in Taxila[147] to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra. Historically, it is one of the earliest known inscriptions related to the Vaishnavism in
India.[148][149][150]

Heliodorus pillar inscription (circa 113 BCE)

Translation Transliteration Inscription

(English) (original Brahmi script) (Prakrit in the Brahmi script)[147]

( )
Devadevasa Vā[sude]vasa Garuḍadhvaje ayaṃ
( )
karito i[a] Heliodoreṇa bhāga-

This Garuda-standard of Vāsudeva, the God of

Gods vatena Diyasa putreṇa Takhkhasilākena

was erected here by the devotee Heliodoros,

the son of Dion, a man of Taxila, Yonadatena agatena mahārājasa
sent by the Great Yona King Antialkidas, as
ambassador Aṃtalikitasa upa[ṃ]tā samkāsam-raño
to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra,
the Savior son of the princess from Varanasi, Kāsīput[r]asa [Bh]āgabhadrasa trātārasa
in the fourteenth year of his reign. ( )
vasena [catu]daseṃna rājena vadhamānasa
[151]

Three immortal precepts (footsteps)... when

practiced ( )( )
lead to heaven: self-restraint, charity, Trini amuta pādāni (i me) (su)anuthitāni
consciousness ( ) Heliodorus pillar rubbing (inverted colors). The
neyamti sva(gam) dama cāga apramāda text is in the Brahmi script of the Sunga
period.[154] For a recent photograph (https://kevin
— Adapted from transliterations by E. J. standagephotography.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/
Rapson,[152] Sukthankar,[153] Richard heliodorus-pillar-column-vidisha/).
Salomon,[154] and Shane Wallace.[147]

Middle Brahmi or "Kushana Brahmi" (1st-3rd centuries CE)

Middle Brahmi or "Kushana Brahmi" was in use from the 1st-3rd centuries CE. It is more rounded than its predecessor, and introduces some significant variations in shapes.
Several characters (r and l), classified as vowels, were added during the "Middle Brahmi" period between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, in order to accommodate the transcription of
Sanskrit:[155][156]

Independent vowels

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IAST and IAST and
Letter Letter
Sanskrit IPA Sanskrit IPA

a /ə/ ā /aː/

i /i/ ī /iː/

u /u/ ū /uː/

Middle Brahmi vowel diacritics

e /eː/ o /oː/

ai /əi/ au /əu/

ṛ /r ̩/ ṝ /r ̩ː/

l ̩ /l ̩/ ḹ /l ̩ː/

Consonants

Stop Nasal Approximant Fricative

Voicing → Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

Aspiration → No Yes No Yes No Yes

Velar ka /k/ kha /kʰ/ ga /g/ gha /ɡʱ/ ṅa /ŋ/ ha /ɦ/

Palatal ca /c/ cha /cʰ/ ja /ɟ/ jha /ɟʱ/ ña /ɲ/ ya /j/ śa /ɕ/

Retroflex ṭa /ʈ/ ṭha /ʈʰ/ ḍa /ɖ/ ḍha /ɖʱ/ ṇa /ɳ/ ra /r/ ṣa /ʂ/

Dental ta /t ̪/ tha /t ̪ʰ/ da /d̪/ dha /d̪ʱ/ na /n/ la /l/ sa /s/

Labial pa /p/ pha /pʰ/ ba /b/ bha /bʱ/ ma /m/ va /w, ʋ/

Examples

Early/Middle Brahmi legend on the Inscribed Kushan statue of Western The rulers of the Western Satraps Nasik Cave inscription No.10. of
coinage of Chastana: RAJNO Satraps King Chastana, with were called Mahākhatapa ("Great Nahapana, Cave No.10.
MAHAKSHATRAPASA inscription "Shastana" in Middle Satrap") in their Brahmi script
GHSAMOTIKAPUTRASA Brahmi script of the Kushan period ( inscriptions, as here in a dedicatory
CHASHTANASA “Of the Rajah, the Sha-sta-na).[158] inscription by Prime Minister Ayama in
Great Satrap, son of Ghsamotika, Here, sta is the conjunct consonant the name of his ruler Nahapana,
Chashtana". 1st-2nd century CE.[157] of sa and ta , vertically combined. Manmodi Caves, circa 100 CE.
[159]

Circa 100 CE.

Late Brahmi or "Gupta Brahmi" (4th-6th centuries CE)

Independent vowels

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IAST and IAST and
Letter Letter Late Brahmi vowel diacritics
Sanskrit IPA Sanskrit IPA

a /ə/ ā /aː/

i /i/ ī /iː/

u /u/ ū /uː/

e /eː/ o /oː/ Gupta script vowel diacritics (Allahabad Usage examples.[160][161]

standard).[160][161]
ai /əi/ au /əu/

ṛ /r ̩/ ṝ /r ̩ː/

l ̩ /l ̩/ ḹ /l ̩ː/

Consonants

Stop Nasal Approximant Fricative

Voicing → Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

Aspiration → No Yes No Yes No Yes

Velar ka /k/ kha /kʰ/ ga /g/ gha /ɡʱ/ ṅa /ŋ/ ha /ɦ/

Palatal ca /c/ cha /cʰ/ ja /ɟ/ jha /ɟʱ/ ña /ɲ/ ya /j/ śa /ɕ/

Retroflex ṭa /ʈ/ ṭha /ʈʰ/ ḍa /ɖ/ ḍha /ɖʱ/ ṇa /ɳ/ ra /r/ ṣa /ʂ/

Dental ta /t ̪/ tha /t ̪ʰ/ da /d̪/ dha /d̪ʱ/ na /n/ la /l/ sa /s/

Labial pa /p/ pha /pʰ/ ba /b/ bha /bʱ/ ma /m/ va /w, ʋ/

Examples

Gupta script on stone Kanheri Caves, The Gopika Cave Inscription of Coin of Alchon Huns ruler Mihirakula. Sanchi inscription of Chandragupta II.
one of the earliest descendants of Anantavarman, in the Sanskrit Obv: Bust of king, with legend in
Brahmi language and using the Gupta script. Gupta script ( ) ,[162]
Barabar Caves, 5th- or 6th-century (Ja)yatu Mihirakula (""Let there be
CE. victory to Mihirakula").[163][164][165]

Descendants
Over the course of a millennium, Brahmi developed into numerous regional scripts, commonly classified into a more rounded Southern India group and a more angular Northern
India group. Over time, these regional scripts became associated with the local languages. A Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta Empire, sometimes also
called "Late Brahmi" (used during the 5th century), which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including the Siddhaṃ script (6th century), Śāradā
script (9th century) and Devanagari (10th century).

Brahmi-Gupta-Devanagari evolution.

Southern Brahmi gave rise to the Grantha alphabet (6th century), the Vatteluttu alphabet (8th century), and due to the contact of Hinduism with Southeast Asia during the early
centuries CE, also gave rise to the Baybayin in the Philippines, the Javanese script in Indonesia, the Khmer alphabet in Cambodia, and the Old Mon script in Burma.

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Also in the Brahmic family of scripts are several Central Asian scripts such as Tibetan, Tocharian (also called slanting Brahmi), and the
one used to write the Saka language.

Several authors have suggested that the basic letters of hangul were modeled on the 'Phags-pa script of the Mongol Empire, itself a
derivative of the Tibetan alphabet, a Brahmi script (see origin of Hangul).[166][167]

The arrangement of Brahmi was adopted as the modern order of Japanese kana, though the letters themselves are unrelated.[168]

Unicode and digitization

Early Ashokan Brahmi was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0. 1800 years apart these two
inscriptions: Brahmi script of the 3rd
The Unicode block for Brahmi is U+11000–U+1107F. It lies within Supplementary Multilingual Plane. As of August 2014 there are two century BCE (Edict of Ashoka), and
non-commercially available fonts that support Brahmi, namely Noto Sans Brahmi commissioned by Google which covers all the its derivative, 16th century CE
characters,[169] and Adinatha which only covers Tamil Brahmi.[170] Segoe UI Historic, tied in with Windows 10, also features Brahmi Devanagari script (1524 CE), on the
Delhi-Topra pillar.
glyphs.[171]

The Sanskrit word for Brahmi, ा ी (IAST Brāhmī) in the Brahmi script should be rendered as follows: .

Brahmi[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11000.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1100x        

U+1101x

U+1102x

U+1103x

U+1104x

U+1105x

U+1106x

U+1107x  BNJ 

Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 12.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also
Early Indian epigraphy
Lipi
Pre-Islamic scripts in Afghanistan
Sankhalipi
Tamil-Brahmi
Annaicoddai seal

Notes
1. Aramaic is written from right to left, as are several early examples of Brahmi.[42] For example, Brahmi and Aramaic g ( and ) and Brahmi and Aramaic t ( and ) are
nearly identical, as are several other pairs. Bühler also perceived a pattern of derivation in which certain characters were turned upside down, as with pe and pa, which
he attributed to a stylistic preference against top-heavy characters.
2. Bühler notes that other authors derive (cha) from qoph. "M.L." indicates that the letter was used as a mater lectionis in some phase of Phoenician or Aramaic. The matres
lectionis functioned as occasional vowel markers to indicate medial and final vowels in the otherwise consonant-only script. Aleph and particularly ʿayin only developed
this function in later phases of Phoenician and related scripts, though also sometimes functioned to mark an initial prosthetic (or prothetic) vowel from a very early period.[46]
3. For example, according to Hultzsch, the first line of the First Edict at Shahbazgarhi (or at Mansehra) reads: "(Ayam) Dhrama-dipi Devanapriyasa
Raño likhapitu" ("This Dharma-Edicts was written by King Devanampriya" Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (https://archive.org/strea
m/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n191/mode/2up) (in Sanskrit). 1925. p. 51.
This appears in the reading of Hultzsch's original rubbing of the Kharoshthi inscription of the first line of the First Edict at Shahbazgarhi (here
attached, which reads "Di" rather than "Li" ).
4. For example Column IV, Line 89 (http://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-42/)
5. More numerous inscribed Sanskrit records in Brahmi have been found near Mathura and elsewhere, but these are from the 1st century CE
"Dhrama-Dipi" in
onwards.[104] Kharosthi script.
6. The archeological sites near the northern Indian city of Mathura has been one of the largest source of such ancient inscriptions. Andhau (Gujarat) and
Nasik (Maharashtra) are other important sources of Brahmi inscriptions from the 1st-century CE.[105]

References
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Quote: "Brāhmī, writing system ancestral to all Indian scripts except Kharoṣṭhī. Of Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.2 (1995), 271–279 (http://indology.info/
Aramaic derivation or inspiration, it can be traced to the 8th or 7th century BC, when papers/salomon/)
it may have been introduced to Indian merchants by people of Semitic origin. (...) a
coin of the 4th century BC, discovered in Madhya Pradesh, is inscribed with Brāhmī
characters running from right to left."

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Quote: "Among the many descendants of Brāhmī are Devanāgarī (used for 44. Bühler 1898, p. 82-83.
Sanskrit, Hindi, and other Indian languages), the Bengali and Gujarati scripts, and
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46. Andersen, F.I.; Freedman, D.N. (1992). "Aleph as a vowel in Old Aramaic". Studies
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102. Salomon 1998, pp. 72–81. 138. Trautmann 2006, p. 62–64.
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105. Salomon 1998, p. 82.
140. Ram Sharma, Brāhmī Script: Development in North-Western India and Central
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141. Stefan Baums (2006). "Towards a computer encoding for Brahmi". In Gail, A.J.; 157. Seaby's Coin and Medal Bulletin: July 1980 (https://archive.org/details/seabyscoinm
Mevissen, G.J.R.; Saloman, R. (eds.). Script and Image: Papers on Art and edalb1980base_r0l5/page/218). Seaby Publications Ltd. 1980. p. 219.
Epigraphy. New Delhi: Shri Jainendra Press. pp. 111–143. 158. "The three letters give us a complete name, which I read as Ṣastana (vide facsimile
142. Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the and cast). Dr. Vogel read it as Mastana but that is incorrect for Ma was always
Stone Age to the 12th Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC written with a circular or triangular knob below with two slanting lines joining the
&pg=PA43). Pearson Education India. p. 43. ISBN 9788131711200. knob" in Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society (https://books.google.co
143. Hultzsch, E. /1925). Inscriptions of Asoka (https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfA m/books?id=yKZEAQAAMAAJ). The Society. 1920.
soka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch). Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 164–165 159. Burgess, Jas (1883). Archaeological Survey Of Western India (https://archive.org/str
144. Hultzsch, E. (1925). Inscriptions of Asoka (https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfA eam/in.ernet.dli.2015.35775). p. 103.
soka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n337/mode/ 160. Das Buch der Schrift: Enthaltend die Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller ... (https://ar
2up). Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 164–165 chive.org/details/dasbuchderschri01faulgoog/page/n142) (in German). K.K. Hof-
145. Hultzsch, E. (1925). Inscriptions of Asoka. New Edition by E. Hultzsch (https://archiv und Staatsdruckerei. 1880. p. 126.
e.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaS 161. "Gupta Unicode" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03249r-brahmi-proposal.pdf)
earchable#page/n337/mode/2up) (in Sanskrit). p. 164. (PDF).
146. Avari, Burjor (2016). India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Subcontinent 162. The "h" ( ) is an early variant of the Gupta script, seen for example in the
from C. 7000 BCE to CE 1200 (https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQB Chandragupta type
AJ&pg=PA167). Routledge. p. 167. ISBN 9781317236733. 163. Verma, Thakur Prasad (2018). The Imperial Maukharis: History of Imperial
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149. Burjor Avari (2016). India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Subcontinent n-early.html). Oriental Numismatic Society. pp. 24–34. also Coinindia Alchon Coins
from C. 7000 BCE to CE 1200 (https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQB (for an exact description of this coin type) (http://coinindia.com/galleries-toramana.ht
AJ). Routledge. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-1-317-23673-3. ml)
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pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8. Transfer" (https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9639/SLS2000v30.1
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(PDF). pp. 4–6. s://web.archive.org/web/20160813164751/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglob
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Deraniyagala, Siran (2004). The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: An Ecological Perspective (https://books.google.com/books?id=IVJcnQEACAAJ). Department of Archaeological
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Gérard Fussman, Les premiers systèmes d'écriture en Inde, in Annuaire du Collège de France 1988–1989 (in French)
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External links
"Brahmi Home" (http://brahmi.sourceforge.net/). brahmi.sourceforge.net. of the Indian Institute of Science
"Ancient Scripts: Brahmi" (http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi.html). www.ancientscripts.com.
"Brahmi Texts | Virtual Vinodh" (http://www.virtualvinodh.com/wp/brahmi/). www.virtualvinodh.com.
Indoskript 2.0 (http://www.indoskript.org), a paleographic database of Brahmi and Kharosthi

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