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The Brahmic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, including Japan in the form of Siddha?. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India, and are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order (goj?on) of Japanese kana.^[1]

History

Brahmic scripts descended from the Brahmi script. Brahmi is clearly attested from the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka, who used the script for imperial edicts, but there are some claims of earlier epigraphy found on pottery in South India and Sri Lanka. The most reliable of these were short Brahmi inscriptions dated to the 4th century BC and published by Coningham et al. (1996).^[2] Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta period, which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the medieval period. Notable examples of such medieval scripts, developed by the 7th or 8th century, include Nagari, Siddham and Sharada.

The Siddha? script was especially important in Buddhism, as many sutras were written in it. The art of Siddham calligraphy survives today in Japan. The syllabic nature and dictionary order of the modern kana system of Japanese writing is believed to be descended from the Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism.^[3]

Southern Brahmi evolved into Old Kannada, Pallava and Vatteluttu scripts, which in turn diversified into other scripts of South India and Southeast Asia.

Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BCE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script or "Kannada-Telugu script" or Kadamba script, also known as "Old Telugu script", owing to its similarity to the same.^[4][5]

Initially, minor changes were made which is now called Tamil Brahmi, which has far fewer letters than some of the other Indic scripts as it has no separate aspirated or voiced consonants.

• 

  A fragment of Ashoka's 6th pillar edict, in Brahmi, the ancestor of all Brahmic scripts

• 

  Spread of Brahmic family of scripts from India

Characteristics

Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all the scripts, are:

• Each consonant has an inherent vowel which is usually a short 'a' (in Bengali, Assamese and Oriya it is a short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark, known in Sanskrit as a virama/halant, can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
• Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not attached to a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
• Consonants (up to 4 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligatures. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
• Nasalization and aspiration of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
• The alphabetical order is: vowels, velar consonants, palatal consonants, retroflex consonants, dental consonants, bilabial consonants, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four stops (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasal consonant.

Comparison

Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts, organised on the principle that glyphs in the same column all derive from the same Brahmi glyph. Accordingly:

• The charts are not comprehensive. Glyphs may be unrepresented if they don't derive from any Brahmi character, but are later inventions.
• The pronunciations of glyphs in the same column may not be identical. The pronunciation row is only representative; the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation is given for Sanskrit where possible, or another language if necessary.

The transliteration is indicated in ISO 15919.

Consonants

ISO[a]	ka	kha	ga	gha	?	ca	cha	ja	jha	ñ	?a	?ha	?a	?ha	?a	ta	tha	da	dha	na	?	pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	ya	ra	?	la	?a	?	v	?a	?a	sa	h
Assamese	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?			?	?	?	?	?
Bengali	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?				?	?	?	?
Sylheti	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?		?		?				?			?
Devanagari	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Gujarati	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?
Odia	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?
Gurmukhi	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?			?			?	?
Tibetan	?	?	?		?	?	?	?		?	(derived)					?	?	?		?		?	?	?		?	?	?		?			?	?	?	?	?
Tirhuta	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?				?	?	?	?
Early Brahmi	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?
Middle Brahmi																															?
Late Brahmi																															?
Telugu	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Kannada	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Sinhala	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?
Malayalam	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Tamil	?				?	?		?		?	?				?	?				?	?	?				?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Burmese	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	? / ?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Khmer	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?
Thai	?	?,?[b]	?,?[b]	?	?	?	?	?,?[b]	?	?	?,[b]?	?	?	?	?	?,[b]?	?	?	?	?		?,[b]?	?,?[b]	?,?[b]	?	?	?	?		?	?		?	?	?	?	?,?[b]
Lao	?	?	?		?	?		?								?	?	?		?		?	?	?		?	?	?		?			?			?	?
Balinese	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?			?	?	?	?	?
Javanese[c]	?	?[c]	?	?[c]	?	?	?[c]	?	?[c]	?	?	?[c]	?	?[c]	?[c]	?	?[c]	?	?[c]	?	?	?	?[c]	?	?[c]	?	?	?		?			?	?[c]	?[c]	?	?
Sundanese	?		?		?	?		?		?						?		?		?		?		?		?	?	?		?			?			?	?
Lontara	?		?		?	?		?		?						?		?		?		?		?		?	?	?		?			?			?	?
Batak (Toba)	?		?		?			?		?/?						?		?		?		?		?		?		?		?			?			?	?
Baybayin	?		?		?											?		?		?		?		?		?	?	?		?			?			?	?
ISO	ka	kha	ga	gha	?	ca	cha	ja	jha	ñ	?a	?ha	?a	?ha	?a	ta	tha	da	dha	na	?	pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	ya	ra	?	la	?a	?	v	?a	?a	sa	h

Notes

Vowels

Vowels are presented in their independent form on the left of each column, and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant k on the right. A glyph for ka is an independent consonant letter itself without any vowel sign, where the vowel a is inherent.

Notes

Numerals

List of Brahmic scripts

Historical

Early Brahmic scripts
IAST	Ashoka	Girnar	Chandra -gupta	Gujarat	Allahabad	Narbada	Kistna
a
?
i
?
u
?
?
e
ai
o
au
k
kh
g
gh
?
c
ch
j
jh
ñ
?
?h
?
?h
?
t
th
d
dh
n
p
ph
b
bh
m
y
r
l
v
?
?
s
h

Indo-Aryan languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except dark blue- colored Khowar, Pashai, Kohistani, and Urdu- not marked here, which use Arabic derived scripts).

Dravidian languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except Brahui which uses Arabic derived script).

The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BC. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century AD and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Vatteluttu and Old-Kannada/Pallava scripts with the spread of Buddhism sent Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.

Northern Brahmic

• Gupta script, 5th century
  • Sharada, 8th century
    • Gurmukhi, 14th century
    • Landa, 10th century
      • Khojki, 16th century
      • Khudabadi, 1550s
      • Mahajani
      • Multani
    • Takri
  • Siddham, 7th century
    • • Anga Lipi, 720
      • Assamese script, 13th century
      • Bengali script
      • Tirhuta/Mithilakshar, 15th century
    • Tibetan script, 7th century
      • Lepcha alphabet
        • Limbu alphabet
      • 'Phags-pa, 13th century
  • Nagari, 8th century
    • Devanagari, 13th century
      • Gujarati, 16th century
      • Modi, 17th century
      • Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, 19th century
    • Kaithi, 16th century
    • Nandinagari, 8th century
    • Sylheti Nagari, 16th century
  • Bhaiksuki
• Nepal script
  • Bhujimol, 6th century
  • Ranjana, 12th century
    • Soyombo, 17th century
  • Prachalit
• Tocharian script ("Slanting Brahmi"), 7th century
• Meeitei Mayek
• Odia, 10th century

Southern Brahmic

• Tamil-Brahmi
  • Tamil script
  • Vatteluttu
    • Saurashtra alphabet
  • Kolezhuthu
  • Malayanma
  • Pallava script
    • Grantha alphabet
      • Goykanadi
      • Cham alphabet
      • Tigalari alphabet
      • Malayalam script
      • Sinhala script
      • Dhives akuru
        • Thaana
    • Kawi script
      • Balinese script
      • Batak script
      • Baybayin
      • Kulitan alphabet
      • Buhid alphabet
      • Hanunó'o alphabet
      • Javanese script
      • Lontara script
      • Sundanese script
      • Rencong script
      • Rejang script
      • Tagbanwa script
    • Khmer alphabet
      • Thai alphabet
      • Lao alphabet
    • Old Mon script
      • Ahom alphabet
      • Burmese alphabet
      • Tai Tham alphabet
        • New Tai Lue alphabet
    • Tai Le alphabet
  • Kadamba, 5th century
    • Halegannada
      • Kannada alphabet, 5th century
      • Pyu script
        • Burmese script
          • S'gaw Karen alphabet
          • Shan alphabet
• Bhattiprolu
  • Telugu script, 9th century

Unicode

As of Unicode version 12.0, the following Brahmic scripts have been encoded:

See also

• Devanagari transliteration
  • International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
  • National Library at Kolkata romanization
• Bharati Braille, the unified braille assignments of Indian languages
• Indus script - the earliest writing system on the Indian subcontinent
• ISCII - the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts

References

External links

• Online Tool which supports Conversion between various Brahmic Scripts
• Windows Indic Script Support
• An Introduction to Indic Scripts
• South Asian Writing Systems
• Enhanced Indic Transliterator Transliterate from romanised script to Indian Languages.
• Indian Transliterator A means to transliterate from romanised to Unicode Indian scripts.
• Imperial Brahmi Font and Text-Editor
• Brahmi Script
• Xlit: Tool for Transliteration between English and Indian Languages
• Padma: Transformer for Indic Scripts - a Firefox add-on