Kharosthi script
Escritura kharosthi
- Date
- c. 350 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Taxila, Punjab, Pakistan
- Credited to
- Inhabitants of Gandhara under Achaemenid rule
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
An abugida written right to left, derived from Imperial Aramaic and used in north-west India and Central Asia. It served Ashoka's edicts in Gandhara and Buddhist manuscripts until the 3rd-4th century AD.
Its creation date is an inference: the oldest datable evidence is Ashoka's edicts (c. 250 BC).
What it led to
- Ashoka's edicts in the north-west (c. 250 BC)
- Gandharan Buddhist manuscripts on birch bark
- bilingual Indo-Greek and Kushan coins