Kharosthi is widely held to be a derivation of Aramaic, whereas the Semitic origins of the Brahmic scripts are not universally agreed upon.[1][2][3][4][5]
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
You may need rendering support to display the uncommon Unicode characters in this article correctly.
Kharoshthi letters.
History of the alphabet
Egyptian hieroglyphs 32nd c. BCE
Hieratic 32nd c. BCE
Demotic 7th c. BCE
Meroitic 3rd c. BCE
Proto-Sinaitic 19th c. BCE
Ugaritic 15th c. BCE
Ancient South Arabian 9th c. BCE
Geʽez c. 5th c. BCE
Phoenician 12th c. BCE
Hangul 1443
Thaana c. 1601
Adlam 1989
Phoenician 12th c. BCE
Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE
Samaritan 6th c. BCE
Aramaic 8th c. BCE
Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE
Brahmi 3rd c. BCE
Brahmic family
Pallava 4th century
Cham 4th century
Dhives Akuru 6th century
Khmer 611
Tibetan 7th century
ʼPhags-pa 1269
Devanagari 10th century
Canadian Aboriginal 1840
Hebrew 3rd c. BCE
Square Aramaic 2007
Pahlavi 3rd c. BCE
Avestan 4th century
Palmyrene 2nd c. BCE
Nabataean 2nd c. BCE
Arabic 4th century
N'Ko 1949
Syriac 2nd c. BCE
Sogdian 2nd c. BCE
Old Turkic 6th century
Old Hungarian c. 650
Old Uyghur
Mongolian 1204
Mandaic 2nd century
Greek 8th c. BCE
Etruscan 8th c. BCE
Latin 7th c. BCE
Deseret 1854
Great Lakes Algonquian 19th century
Blackfoot 1888
Fraser 1915
Saanich 1978
Osage 2006
Runic 2nd century
Ogham 4th century
Lycian 5th c. BCE
Coptic 3rd century
Gothic 3rd century
Armenian 405
Caucasian Albanian c. 420
Georgian c. 430
Glagolitic 862
Cyrillic c. 940
Old Permic 1372
Libyco-Berber 10th c. BCE
Tifinagh 4th century
Neo-Tifinagh 1970
Paleohispanic 7th c. BCE
Part of a series on
Numeral systems
Place-value notation
Hindu–Arabic numerals
Western Arabic
Eastern Arabic
Bengali
Devanagari
Gujarati
Gurmukhi
Odia
Sinhala
Tamil
Malayalam
Telugu
Kannada
Dzongkha
Tibetan
Balinese
Burmese
Javanese
Khmer
Lao
Mongolian
Sundanese
Thai
East Asian systems
Contemporary
Chinese
Suzhou
Hokkien
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Historic
Counting rods
Tangut
Other systems
History
Ancient
Babylonian
Post-classical
Cistercian
Mayan
Muisca
Pentadic
Quipu
Rumi
Contemporary
Cherokee
Kaktovik (Iñupiaq)
By radix/base
Common radices/bases
2
3
4
5
6
8
10
12
16
20
60
(table)
Non-standard radices/bases
Bijective(1)
Signed-digit(balanced ternary)
Mixed(factorial)
Negative
Complex(2i)
Non-integer(φ)
Asymmetric
Sign-value notation
Non-alphabetic
Aegean
Attic
Aztec
Brahmi
Chuvash
Egyptian
Etruscan
Kharosthi
Prehistoric counting
Proto-cuneiform
Roman
Tally marks
Alphabetic
Abjad
Armenian
Alphasyllabic
Akṣarapallī
Āryabhaṭa
Kaṭapayādi
Coptic
Cyrillic
Geʽez
Georgian
Glagolitic
Greek
Hebrew
List of numeral systems
v
t
e
The Kharoṣṭhī script (Kharosthi: 𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨮𐨿𐨛𐨁𐨌, also spelled Kharoshthi), also known as the Gāndhārī script,[6] was an ancient Indic script used by various peoples from the north-western outskirts of the Indian subcontinent (present-day Pakistan) to Central Asia via Afghanistan.[1] An abugida, it was introduced at least by the middle of the 3rd century BCE, possibly during the 4th century BCE,[7] and remained in use until it died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE.[1]
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 East Turkestan.
^ abcR. 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.
^Bühler, Georg (1895). "The Origin of the Kharoṣṭhī Alphabet". Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. 9: 44–66. JSTOR 23860352.
^"Kharosthi Script". World History Encyclopedia.
^"Kharoshti: writing system". Britannica.
^Salomon 1998, p. 20.
^Leitich, Keith A. (2017). "Kharoṣṭhī Script". Buddhism and Jainism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer Netherlands. pp. 660–662. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-0852-2_238. ISBN 978-94-024-0851-5.
1 and Kharoṣṭhi at number 4, but also Javanaliya (probably Greek) and others not found in the Buddhist lists. While the contemporary Kharoṣṭhī script...
influence of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean and for its use of the Kharoṣṭhī script, compared to Brahmic scripts used by other Prakrits. Gāndhārī is...
oldest inscriptions, 4 looks like a +, reminiscent of the X of neighboring Kharoṣṭhī, and perhaps a representation of 4 lines or 4 directions. However, the...
visiting the region. Gāndhārī, an Indo-Aryan language written in the Kharosthi script, acted as the lingua franca of the region though through Buddhism...
club in his two hands. The artwork also has an inscription with it in Kharosthi script, which has been deciphered by scholars as Rama-Krsna, and interpreted...
rock-inscriptions that are cut into two large rock boulders and written in the Kharosthi script. They retain immense historical importance, as they appear to be...
letter shapes did not become standard until the 1st century CE). The Kharosthi script is an Aramaic-derived alphasyllabary used in the Indo-Greek Kingdom...
Asiatic Society of Bengal and is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts of ancient India. He studied, documented and illustrated...
King Ashoka in the nearby Shahbaz Garhi, written in the right-to-left Kharosthi script, date from the Mauryan period (mid-200s BCE) and represent the...
BCE Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE Samaritan 6th c. BCE Aramaic 8th c. BCE Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE Brahmi 3rd c. BCE Brahmic family Pallava 4th century Cham 4th...
Gāndhāra has come to be called Gāndhārī. A few documents are written in the Kharoṣṭhi script survive including a version of the Dhammapada. The Prakrits (which...
Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan (in Kharosthi script) Mansehra Rock Edicts, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan (in Kharosthi script) Kalsi, near Chakrata...
scripts, a family of scripts used to write Indian and other Asian languages Kharosthi (extinct) Indian numerals Indian religions, also known as the Dharmic...
ancestor of all Brahmic scripts Spread of Brahmic family of scripts (and Kharosthi) from India Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all...
BCE Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE Samaritan 6th c. BCE Aramaic 8th c. BCE Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE Brahmi 3rd c. BCE Brahmic family Pallava 4th century Cham 4th...
Pahlavi or Sogdian alphabets, as suggested by V. Thomsen, or possibly via Kharosthi (cf., Issyk inscription). Brahmi script was also possibly derived or inspired...
neighbouring territory, such as Kosala or Panchala. Mason's marks in Kharosthi have been found on several elements of the Bharhut remains, indicating...
the Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī scripts; the abjad in question is usually considered to be the Aramaic one, but while the link between Aramaic and Kharosthi is...
Global Information
