List of Ancient Indian Scripts – No one knows everything

Indian language has a rich history attached to it. There are many languages, which form a part of the Indian language such as Hindi, Pali, and Sanskrit, and there are many more, which people have no idea about. Moreover, knowing about the history of ancient Indian scripts can help with your XAT preparation.

List of Ancient Indian Scripts

1. Brahmi Script

Brahmi is the creator of most of the ancient Indian scripts in existence, such as Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Devanagari etc. The Brahmi script evolved into two types- Northern, which is angular and the Southern, which is circular. In 1937, James Princep deciphered the script, and the best evidence can be found in the rock-cut edicts of Asoka.

2. Indus Script

As the name suggests, the population of the Indus Valley civilization used the Indus Script and it has not yet been deciphered by anybody till date. The Indus Script is written in the Boustrophedon style i.e. one line is written from the left side to the right side and the other lines are written from the right side to the left. According to common belief, this script precedes the Brahmi script.

3. Gupta Script

The Gupta Script is also referred to as the late Brahmi Script and has led to the rise of scripts like Siddham, Sarada and Nagari scripts. In addition, it also gave birth to other important scripts such as Bengali, Devanagari etc. The Gupta Script was utilized for writing Sanskrit in the Gupta period.

4. Kharosthi Script

The Kharosthi Script was written from the right side to the left and is referred to as the contemporary of the Brahmi Script. Also known as, the Gandhari Script, the Gandhari population of North-Western India used it, and it can be found in the form of Buddhist texts in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.

5. Sarada Script

The Sarada Script is a Western variation of the Gupta Script, which has now evolved in the Gurmukhi and Kashmiri Scripts. Even though it was initially used for writing Sanskrit, it is hardly used in the present time.

6. Devanagari Script

The Devanagari Script is probably the most well known script of all time, as it is used to write major languages like Nepali, Marathi, Hindi, Konkani, and Santhali. It is considered an urban as well as a religious type of an Indian script. Currently, it is used for writing Sanskrit and is one of the most commonly used writing systems in the world.

7. Nagari Script

The Nagari Script is the initial form of the Devanagari Script and the Eastern variant of the Gupta Script. It has now bifurcated into other scripts such as Tibetan, Bengali, and Devanagari etc. and is used to write both Sanskrit and Prakrit.

8. Grantha Script

The Grantha Script is one of the first scripts to have evolved from the Brahmi script and precedes the Sinhala script of Sri Lanka. It has been divided into Malayalam and Tamil scripts, where it is utilized to write Sanskrit Granthas.

9. Kalinga Script

Since Kalinga was the old name of Odisha, this script is used for writing the Oriya language. Even though it is somewhat similar to the Brahmi script, the Oriya language uses a script obtained from the Bengali language.

10. Tamil Script

The Tamil script originated from the Grantha script and is written from the left side to the right. It is not an alphabetical language but a syllabic one. It is used in Sri Lanka and India for writing the Tamil language.

11. Kadamba Script

The Kadamba Script led to the rise of Telugu scripts and modern Kannada scripts. It also symbolizes the birth of the Kannada script. Additionally, it is used for writing Marathi, Kannada, Konkani, and Sanskrit.

12. Vatteluttu Script

The Vatteluttu Script was initially used for writing Southern languages such as Malayalam and Tamil. However, presently both Malayalam and Tamil have migrated to Grantha derived scripts.

 

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Conclusion

Having a good idea about all the important Indian scripts can help you expand your general knowledge and aid you in scoring high marks in your competitive examination. Additionally, this will also help you with your competitive exam preparation before the actual examination.