Kharosthi 𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨯𐨠𐨁
Script type	Abugida
Time period	4th century BCE – 3rd century CE
Direction	right-to-left script
Languages	Gandhari Prakrit Pali Saka Sanskrit
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Kharosthi
Sister systems	Brahmi script Nabataean alphabet Syriac alphabet Palmyrene alphabet Mandaic alphabet Pahlavi scripts Sogdian alphabet
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Khar (305), ​Kharoshthi
Unicode
Unicode alias	Kharoshthi
Unicode range	U+10A00–U+10A5F
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.

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The Kharoṣṭhī script (Kharosthi: 𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨯𐨠𐨁, also spelled Kharoshthi), also known as the Gāndhārī script,^[6] was an ancient Indo-Iranian 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.

Form

Kharosthi (𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨮𐨿𐨛𐨁𐨌, from right to left Kha-ro-ṣṭhī) is mostly written right to left (type A).

Each syllable includes the short /a/ sound by default^{[citation needed]}, with other vowels being indicated by diacritic marks. Recent epigraphic evidence^{[citation needed]} has shown that the order of letters in the Kharosthi script follows what has become known as the Arapacana alphabet. As preserved in Sanskrit documents, the alphabet runs:^{[citation needed]}

a ra pa ca na la da ba ḍa ṣa va ta ya ṣṭa ka sa ma ga stha ja śva dha śa kha kṣa sta jñā rtha (or ha) bha cha sma hva tsa gha ṭha ṇa pha ska ysa śca ṭa ḍha

Some variations in both the number and order of syllables occur in extant texts.^{[citation needed]}

Kharosthi includes only one standalone vowel character, which is used for initial vowels in words.^{[citation needed]} Other initial vowels use the a character modified by diacritics. Using epigraphic evidence, Salomon has established that the vowel order is /a e i o u/, akin to Semitic scripts, rather than the usual vowel order for Indic scripts /a i u e o/. Also, there is no differentiation between long and short vowels in Kharosthi. Both are marked using the same vowel markers.

The alphabet was used in Gandharan Buddhism as a mnemonic for remembering a series of verses on the nature of phenomena. In Tantric Buddhism, the list was incorporated into ritual practices and later became enshrined in mantras.

Vowels

Vowels^[9]

		Initial				Diacritic
		Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	With 'k'
Unrounded	low central		𐨀	a	/ə/	—	—	𐨐	ka
	high front		𐨀𐨁	i	/i/		𐨁	𐨐𐨁	ki
Rounded	high back		𐨀𐨂	u	/u/		𐨂	𐨐𐨂	ku
Syllabic vibrant							𐨃	𐨐𐨃	kr̥
Mid	front unrounded		𐨀𐨅	e	/e/		𐨅	𐨐𐨅	ke
	back rounded		𐨀𐨆	o	/o/		𐨆	𐨐𐨆	ko

Consonants

Occlusives^[9]

	VOICELESS PLOSIVES							VOICED PLOSIVES							NASALS
	Unaspirated				Aspirated			Unaspirated				Aspirated
	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	Trans.	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	Trans.	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA
Velar		𐨐	k	/k/		𐨑	kh		𐨒	g	/ɡ/		𐨓	gh
Palatal		𐨕	c	/c/		𐨖	ch		𐨗	j	/ɟ/					𐨙	ñ	/ɲ/
Retroflex		𐨚	ṭ	/ʈ/		𐨛	ṭh		𐨜	ḍ	/ɖ/		𐨝	ḍh		𐨞	ṇ	/ɳ/
Dental		𐨟	t	/t/		𐨠	th		𐨡	d	/d/		𐨢	dh		𐨣	n	/n/
Labial		𐨤	p	/p/		𐨥	ph		𐨦	b	/b/		𐨧	bh		𐨨	m	/m/

There are two special modified forms of these consonants:^[10]

	Image	Text	Trans.	Image	Text	Trans.
Modified form		𐨲	ḱ		𐨳	ṭ́h
Original form		𐨐	k		𐨛	ṭh

Sonorants and fricatives^[9]

	Palatal				Retroflex				Dental				Labial
	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA	Image	Text	Trans.	IPA
Sonorants		𐨩	y	/j/		𐨪	r	/r/		𐨫	l	/l/		𐨬	v	/ʋ/
Sibilants		𐨭	ś	/ɕ/		𐨮	ṣ	/ʂ/		𐨯	s	/s/
	Other
		𐨰	z	?
		𐨱	h	/h/

Additional marks

Various additional marks are used to modify vowels and consonants:^[10]

Punctuation

Nine Kharosthi punctuation marks have been identified:^[10]

Numerals

Kharosthi included a set of numerals that are reminiscent of Roman numerals.^{[citation needed]} The system is based on an additive and a multiplicative principle, but does not have the subtractive feature used in the Roman numeral system.^[12]

Numerals^[10]

Value	1	2	3	4	10	20	100	1000
Image
Text	𐩀	𐩁	𐩂	𐩃	𐩄	𐩅	𐩆	𐩇

The numerals, like the letters, are written from right to left. There is no zero and no separate signs for the digits 5–9. Numbers in Kharosthi use an additive system. For example, the number 1996 would be written as 1000 4 4 1 100 20 20 20 20 10 4 2 (image: , text: 𐩇𐩃𐩃𐩀𐩆𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩄𐩃𐩁).

History

The script was earlier also known as "Indo-Bactrian script", "Kabul script" and "Arian-Pali".^[13][14] Scholars are not in agreement as to whether the Kharosthi script evolved gradually, or was the deliberate work of a single inventor. An analysis of the script forms shows a clear dependency on the Aramaic alphabet but with extensive modifications.

Kharosthi seems to be derived from a form of Aramaic used in administrative work during the reign of Darius the Great, rather than the monumental cuneiform used for public inscriptions.^[15] The name Kharosthi may derive from the Hebrew kharosheth, a Semitic word for writing,^[15] or from Old Iranian *xšaθra-pištra, which means "royal writing".^[16]

One model is that the Aramaic script arrived with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley in 500 BCE and evolved over the next 200+ years to reach its final form by the 3rd century BCE where it appears in some of the Edicts of Ashoka. However, no intermediate forms have yet been found to confirm this evolutionary model, and rock and coin inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE onward show a unified and standard form. An inscription in Aramaic dating back to the 4th century BCE was found in Sirkap, testifying to the presence of the Aramaic script in present-day Pakistan. According to Sir John Marshall, this seems to confirm that Kharoshthi was later developed from Aramaic.^[17]

The study of the Kharosthi script was recently invigorated by the discovery of the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, a set of birch bark manuscripts written in Kharosthi, discovered near the Afghan city of Hadda just west of the Khyber Pass in Pakistan. The manuscripts were donated to the British Library in 1994. The entire set of British Library manuscripts are dated to the 1st century CE, although other collections from different institutions contain Kharosthi manuscripts from 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE,^[18][19] making them the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered.

While the derived Brahmi scripts remained in use for centuries, Kharosthi seems to have been abandoned after the 2nd-3rd Century AD. Because of the substantial differences between the Semitic-derived Kharosthi script and its successors, knowledge of Kharosthi may have declined rapidly once the script was supplanted by Brahmi-derived scripts, until its re-discovery by Western scholars in the 19th Century.^[15]

The Kharosthi script was deciphered separately almost concomitantly by James Prinsep (in 1835, published in the Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal, India)^[20] and by Carl Ludwig Grotefend (in 1836, published in Blätter für Münzkunde, Germany),^[21] with Grotefend "evidently not aware" of Prinsep's article, followed by Christian Lassen (1838).^[22] They all used the bilingual coins of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (obverse in Greek, reverse in Pali, using the Kharosthi script). This in turn led to the reading of the Edicts of Ashoka, some of which were written in the Kharosthi script (the Major Rock Edicts at Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi).^[15]

Unicode

Kharosthi was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2005 with the release of version 4.1.

The Unicode block for Kharosthi is U+10A00–U+10A5F:

Gallery

• 

  Kharoshti script on a wooden plate in the National Museum of India in New Delhi

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  Kharoshti script on a wooden plate in the National Museum of India in New Delhi

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  Kharoshti script on a wooden plate in the National Museum of India in New Delhi

• 

  Kharoshti script on wood from Niya, 3rd century CE

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  Double-wedged wooden tablet in Gandhari written in Kharosthi script, 2nd to 4th century CE

• 

  Wooden tablet inscribed with Kharosthi characters (2nd–3rd century CE). Excavated at the Niya ruins in Xinjiang, China. Collection of the Xinjiang Museum.

• 

  Wooden Kharosthi document found at Loulan, China by Aurel Stein

• 

  Fragmentary Kharosthi Buddhist text on birchbark (Part of a group of early manuscripts from Gandhara), first half of 1st century CE. Collection of the British Library in London

• 

  Silver bilingual tetradrachm of Menander I (155-130 BCE). Obverse: Greek legend, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU), literally, "Of Saviour King Menander". Reverse: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJA TRATARASA MENADRASA "Saviour King Menander". Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.

• 

  Coin of King Gurgamoya of Khotan (1st century CE). Obverse: Kharoshthi legend "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya. Reverse: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin".

• 

  Coin of Menander II Dikaiou Obverse: Menander wearing a diadem. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ "King Menander the Just". Reverse: Winged figure bearing diadem and palm, with halo, probably Nike. The Kharoshthi legend reads MAHARAJASA DHARMIKASA MENADRASA "Great King, Menander, follower of the Dharma, Menander".

• 

  The Indo-Greek Hashtnagar Pedestal symbolizes bodhisattva and ancient Kharosthi script. Found near Rajar in Gandhara, Pakistan. Exhibited at the British Museum in London.

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  Mathura lion capital with addorsed lions and Prakrit inscriptions in Kharoshthi script

• 

  Fragments of stone well railings with a Buddhist inscription written in Kharoshthi script (late Han period to the Three Kingdoms era). Discovered at Luoyang, China in 1924.

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  Portion of Emperor Ashoka's Rock Edicts at Shahbaz Garhi

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  Portion of Emperor Ashoka's Rock Edicts at Shahbaz Garhi

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  Document on Wooden Stick written in Kharoshthi script, 3rd-4th century CE.