• A script is also called an alphabet or a writing method. It’s a way to show the parts of a spoken language by making certain lines on a surface (like paper, rocks, birchbark, etc.). The Brahmi script and the Kharosthi script are the two oldest ways of writing in India.
• Most of India’s old and new writing systems, such as Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Assamese/Bengali, etc., are based on Brahmi script. So, it is possible to say that Brahmi is the mother of all forms.
• However, Urdu is written in a script that comes from Arabic, and a few smaller languages, like Santhali, use characters that are not related to Arabic.
• One of the oldest texts on the subcontinent is from the Indus Valley Civilization, but no one knows how to read it.
• Before the Mauryan age, there was a lot of vedic literature and many advanced states in the Ganga valley.
• The inscriptions of Ashoka, the Mauryan ruler, were written in Brahmi script.
• The Aramaic script was used to make the Kharosthi script, which is used in northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The Persians, who ruled some parts of the Indus Valley, are thought to have used the Aramic writing.
• The Indus Valley Civilization made the Indus script, which is a set of symbols.
• Most statements are short and to the point.
• It’s not clear if these marks are part of a language’s writing system.
Brahmi Script:
Brahmi is one of the oldest ways to write. It was used in India and Central Asia in the last centuries BCE and the first centuries CE.
• Some people think that Brahmi came from the current Semitic script, but others think it came from the Indus script.
• The Brahmi language is the parent of all the Indic scripts that are still used in South East Asia today.Most of the words go from left to right. Each unit is made up of a single letter.
• The rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in North-Central India, which were written between 250 and 232 BC, are the best-known Brahmi writings. James Prinsep was able to figure out what the writing said in 1837.
• The people who came after Brahmi Script are:
Gupta Script:
It was used by the Gupta Empire to write in Sanskrit.The Nagari, Sharada, and Siddham writing systems all came from the Gupta writing system, which came from the Brahmi writing system.
• These scripts led to some of India’s most important scripts, such as Devanagari, the Gurmukhi script for Punjabi, the Assamese script, the Bengali script, and the Tibetan script.All of these scripts that came after Brahmi are called Brahmic scripts.
Kharosthi Script:
The Kharosthi script was used to write Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit in ancient Gandhara, which is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD.
• It is related to the Brahmi language and was figured out by James Princep.
• Most of the writing goes from right to left. Kharosthi is also an abugida like Brahmi.
Vatteluttu Script:
The Vatteluttu alphabet is an abugida writing style used in South India.Vatteluttu is one of the three main alphabets that Tamil people made to write the Granthi or Pallava alphabet and the Tamil script. It comes from Tamil-Brahmi.
Kadamba Script
The Kadamba script was created during the rule of the Kadamba dynasty in the 4th and 6th centuries. It is a descendant of the Brahmi script and was later used to make the Kannada-Telegu script.
Grantha Script:
Between the sixth and twentieth centuries, Tamil people in South India, especially 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 grew out of the Brahmi script of Tamil Nadu.
• Like the Tigalari and Sinhala alphabets, the Malayalam script is a straight descendant of Grantha.
Sarada Script:
The Sarada or Sharada script is an abugida writing system from the Brahmic family of scripts. It came into use around the eighth century.
• It was used in both Sanskrit and Kashmiri writing.
• It used to be used more often, but then it was only used in Kashmir. Now, only the Kashmiri Pandit community uses it for religious reasons, which isn’t very often.
Gurmukhi Script:
• Gurmukhi grew out of the Sarada writing, and Guru Angad standardised it in the 1600s.
• This is the most popular way for Sikhs and Hindus to write Punjabi. It is used to write the whole Guru Granth Sahib.
Devanagari Script
Devanagari is an abugida alphabet used in India and Nepal. It is written from left to right. The Devanagari script is used for over 120 languages and dialects, such as Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Pali, Konkani, Bodo, Sindhi, and Maithili. This makes it one of the most widely used and adopted writing systems in the world.
• Modi is a writing system used to write the Marathi language.
• The legal way to write in Marathi was Modi until the 20th century, when the Balbodh style of the Devanagari script became the standard.
Even though Marathi was the main language written in Modi, it was also used to write Urdu, Kannada, Gujarati, Hindi, and Tamil. Modi is also an abugida.
Urdu Script
The Urdu language has an alphabet that goes from right to left. This is the Urdu script.It is a change to the Persian alphabet, which is based on the Arabic alphabet and goes back to the 13th century. It has to do with how the Nastaliq style of Perso-Arabic script changed over time.Urdu script’s extended form is called Shahmukhi script, and it is used to write other Indo-Aryan languages of the North Indian region, like Punjabi and Saraiki.
So, we can see that the styles of Indian writing have changed a lot over a long period of time. As Buddhism spread from India to other places, it changed the languages of those places, especially in Sri Lanka, Tibet, and South-East Asia. When Islam came to India, it also changed the way people wrote there. But it’s still not clear how the forms and languages of a country will change and adapt in a world where English has become a common language.
