Everything about Kharosthi Script totally explained
The
Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the
Gāndhārī script, is an ancient
abugida (an alphasyllabary, based on consonants with graphical variations to express their associated vowels) used by the
Gandhara culture of historic northwest
Indian subcontinent to write the
Gāndhārī and
Sanskrit languages. It was in use from the middle of the
3rd century BCE until it died out in its homeland around the
3rd century CE. It was also in use in
Kushan,
Sogdiana (see
Issyk kurgan) and along the
Silk Road where there's some evidence it may have survived until the
7th century in the remote way stations of
Khotan and
Niya. Kharoṣṭhī is encoded in the
Unicode range U+10A00—U+10A5F, from version 4.1.0.
Form
Kharoṣṭhī, unlike all other Indian scripts, is written from right to left. Each syllable includes the short a sound by default, with other vowels being indicated by diacritic marks. Recent epigraphical evidence highlighted by
Professor Richard Salomon has shown that the order of letters in the Kharoṣṭhī script follows what has become known as the Arapacana Alphabet. As preserved in Sanskrit documents the alphabet runs:
» 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 rta ha bha cha sma hva tsa bha ṭha ṇa pha ska ysa śca ṭa ḍha
Some variations in both the number and order of syllables occur in extant texts.
Kharoṣṭhī includes only one standalone vowel sign which is used for initial vowels in words. Other initial vowels are use the a character modified by diacritics. Using epigraphic evidence Salomon has established that the vowel order is a e i o u, rather than the usual vowel order for Indic scripts a i u e o. This is the same as the Semitic vowel order. Also, there's no differentiation between long and shot vowels in kharoshti. Both are marked using the same vowel markers
The alphabet was used by Buddhists as a mnemonic for remembering a series of verses relating to the nature of phenomena. In Tantric Buddhism this list was incorporated into ritual practices, and later became enshrined in mantras.
Numerals
included a set of numerals that are reminiscent of
Roman numerals. The symbols were I for the unit, X for four (perhaps representative of four lines or directions), and ੭ for ten (doubled for twenty):
| ੭ |
IXX |
XX |
IIIX |
IIX |
IX |
X |
III |
II |
I |
| 10 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| ʎII |
ʎI |
|
੭ȜȜȜ |
ȜȜȜ |
੭ȜȜ |
ȜȜ |
੭Ȝ |
Ȝ |
੭ |
| 200 |
100 |
|
70 |
60 |
50 |
40 |
30 |
20 |
10 |
History
The Kharoṣṭhī script was deciphered by
James Prinsep (1799–1840), using the bilingual coins of the
Indo-Greeks (Obverse in Greek, reverse in
Pāli, using the Kharoṣṭhī script). This in turn led to the reading of the
Edicts of Ashoka, some of which, from the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, were written in the Kharoṣṭhī script.
Scholars are not in agreement as to whether the Kharoṣṭhī 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 to support the sounds found in Indic languages. One model is that the Aramaic script arrived with the
Achaemenid conquest of the region 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 found in northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. 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.
The study of the Kharoṣṭhī script was recently invigorated by the discovery of the
Gandharan Buddhist Texts, a set of birch-bark manuscripts written in Kharoṣṭhī, discovered near the Afghani city of
Hadda just west of the Khyber Pass. The manuscripts were donated to the
British Library in
1994. The entire set of manuscripts are dated to the
1st century CE, making them the oldest
Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered.
Image: PhiloxenusCoin.jpg|A silver tetradrachm of the Indo-Greek king Philoxenus (100-95 BCE), with front legend in Greek and reverse legend in the Kharoṣṭhī script.
Image:KingGurgamoyaKhotan1stCenturyCE.jpg|Coin of Gurgamoya, king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century CE.
Obv: Kharoshthi legend "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.
Rev: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin".
Further Information
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