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Type of Scripts in Ancient India

The document outlines various ancient scripts from India, detailing their origins, writing directions, and uses. Key scripts include Brahmi, which is the ancestor of many Indian scripts, and Kharosthi, used in Gandhara culture. Other notable scripts mentioned are Devanagari, used for over 120 languages, and Grantha, which is still used in traditional Vedic schools.

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27 views3 pages

Type of Scripts in Ancient India

The document outlines various ancient scripts from India, detailing their origins, writing directions, and uses. Key scripts include Brahmi, which is the ancestor of many Indian scripts, and Kharosthi, used in Gandhara culture. Other notable scripts mentioned are Devanagari, used for over 120 languages, and Grantha, which is still used in traditional Vedic schools.

Uploaded by

SahilHooda
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Type of Scripts in Ancient India

Scripts Detail

Indus Script  By IVC People


 Not Decipher Yet
 right to left in one line & then left to right in the next line.

Brahmi Script  Left to right


 Most used by Ashoka in his inscriptions
 It was deciphered in 1937 by James Princep.
 Originator of most of the present Indian scripts, including
Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, and Malayalam etc

Gupta Script  Left To Right


 Used to write Sanskrit in Gupta Period
 The Nagari, Sharada, and Siddham scripts all descended
from the Gupta script, which descended from Brahmi.

Kharosthi Script  From Right to left


 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.

Vatteluttu Script  Left to right


 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.

Kadamba Script  It, too, is a descendant of the Brahmi script (Meaning L To


R) and was developed during the reign of the Kadamba
dynasty in the 4th-6th centuries.
This script was later adapted into Kannada-Telegu script.

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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  Belong to 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  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  Used in India and Nepal.


 It's written from left to right.
 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.


 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.

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Urdu Script  Right-to-left alphabet.

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. (so left to right)
 Oriya language presently uses a different script, which has
been derived from Bengali script.

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.

Nandinagari  Derived from the Nagari script which appeared in the 7th
century AD. (So Left to right since Gupta Script is related to
Brahmi Script)
 This script and its variants were used in the central Deccan
region and south India,

Note: if it is Brahmi Script or somehow related to Brahmai Script than its Writing direction will be
Left to Right.

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