Presented by : Arti Chhawari
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INDUS SCRIPT
• The script used by the people belonging to the Indus valley civilisation.
•Not been deciphered yet.
• This script is an example of Boustrophedon style
•Pictographic script
•Estimated number of Symbols: 400
•Average length of inscriptions : upto 5 symbols
BRAHMI SCRIPT
•Oldest writing system
•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.
•Written from left to right
•Brahmi is an Abugida ( segmental writing
system in which consonant–vowel sequences
are written as a unit)
BRAHMI Script
Nothern Brahmi Southern Brahmi
• Gupta script Bhattiprolu Script
Siddham Script Vatteluttu Script
Sarada Script Grantha Script
Nagari Script Mon script ( Burma)
Khmer script (Combodia)
Baybayin script (Philippines)
GUPTA SCRIPT
•Also known as the Late Brahmi script.
•Originated from Northern Brahmi
•Used for writing Sanskrit in the Gupta period.
•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.
•ltr
SIDDHAM SCRIPT
• Also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā
•Used for writing Sanskrit from c. 550 – c. 1200 in Buddhism.
• Descended from the Brahmi script via the Gupta script and later evolved into
the Assamese alphabet, the Maithili alphabet, the Bengali alphabet, and the Tibetan
alphabet.
•The word Siddhaṃ means "accomplished" or "perfected" in Sanskrit. The script received
its name from the practice of writing Siddhaṃ, or Siddhaṃ astu (may there be perfection),
at the head of documents.
•Ltr/rtl/top to bottom
SARADA SCRIPT
• 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.
•Only used by Kashmiri Pandit community in
Kashmir
•ltr
SARADA SCRIPT GURUMUKHI SCRIPT
• Literal meaning being "from the Guru's mouth“.
• Script modified, standardized and used by the second Sikh Guru, Guru
Angad(1504–1552)
•The primary scripture of Sikhism, Guru Granth Sahibis written in Gurmukhi
•ltr
NAGARI SCRIPT
•It was an Eastern variant of the
Gupta script.
•Early form of the Devanagari
script.
• Branched off into many other
scripts such as Devanagari, Bengali,
and Tibetan etc.
• Used to write both Prakrit and
Sanskrit.
NAGARI SCRIPT DEVANAGARI
• An abugida (alphasyllabary) used in India and Nepal.
• It is written from left to right
• has a strong preference for symmetrical rounded shapes within squared outlines
•Used for over 120 languages
BRAHMI Script
Nothern Brahmi Southern Brahmi
• Gupta script Bhattiprolu Script
Siddham Script Vatteluttu Script
Sarada Script Grantha Script
Nagari Script Mon script ( Burma)
Khmer script (Combodia)
Baybayin script (Philippines)
BHATTIPROLU SCRIPT
• A variant of the Brahmi script which has been found in old inscriptions at Bhattiprolu, a
small village in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, South India.
•The inscriptions date to between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE, putting them among the
earliest evidence of Brahmi writing in South India.
BHATTIPROLU SCRIPT KADAMBA SCRIPT
•It is a descendant of Brahmi and marks the
birth of the dedicated Kannada script.
• led to the development of modern
Kannada and Telugu scripts. It was used to
write Sanskrit, Konkani, Kannada and
Marathi.
•Found on coins issued by Kadamba king
GRANTH 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 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.
VATTELUTTU SCRIPT
•It was a script derived from the
Brahmi and was used in the Southern
part of India.
•Abugida Script
•It was used to write Tamil .
•It removed those signs from Brahmi,
which were not needed for writing
the Southern languages.
Modi Script Urdu Script
Kharoshti Script Kaling Script
BRAHMI Script
Nothern Brahmi Southern Brahmi
• Gupta script Bhattiprolu Script
Siddham Script Vatteluttu Script
Sarada Script Grantha Script
Nagari Script Mon script ( Burma)
Khmer script (Combodia)
Baybayin script (Philippines)
KHAROSHTI 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.
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.
MODI SCRIPT
•A script used to write Marathi Language
•Used until the 20th century, after that Balbodh style became prominent
•Other Languages written in Modi script: Urdu Kannada,Gujrati, Hindi etc.
URDU SCRIPT
•Right to left
•Used for Urdu language
•Arabic Persian Urdu
•In its extendended form
known as SHAHMUKHI SCRIPT
( used to write Punjabi, Saraiki
etc.)
