View source for Brahmi script

{{Short description|Ancient script of Central and South Asia}}
{{Redirect|Brahmi}}
{{For|later scripts derived from Brahmi|Brahmic scripts}}
{{Infobox writing system
| name        = Brahmi
| altname     = ''Brāhmī''
| sample      = [[File:Brahmi pillar inscription in Sarnath.jpg|270px]]
| caption     = Brahmi script on [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashoka Pillar]] in [[Sarnath]] ({{circa|250 BCE}})
| type        = [[Abugida]]
| languages   = [[Sanskrit]], [[Pali]], [[Prakrit]], [[Saka language|Saka]], [[Old Uyghur]],
[[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Kannada]]<ref>https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brahmi</ref><ref>https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/281017/how-king-ashoka-scripted-kannada-to-glory.html</ref> [[Elu]]
| time        = At least by the 3rd century BCE{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=11–13}} to 5th century CE
| fam1        = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]
| fam2        = [[Proto-Sinaitic script]]
| fam3        = [[Phoenician alphabet]]
| fam4        = [[Aramaic alphabet]]
| sisters     = [[Kharosthi]]
| children    = *[[Gupta script|Gupta]]
**[[Siddham script|Siddham]]
***[[Nagari script]]
****[[Devanagari script]]
****[[Kaithi script]]
****[[Gujarati script]]
***[[Gaudi script]]
****[[Bengali–Assamese script]]
**[[Sharada script|Sharada]]
***[[Laṇḍā script]]
****[[Gurumukhi script]]
****[[Khudabadi script]]
****[[Mahajani script]]
**[[Tibetan script|Tibetan]]
**[[Kalinga script|Kalinga]]
**[[Bhaiksuki script|Bhaiksuki]]
*[[Tamil-Brahmi]]
**[[Pallava script|Pallava]]
***[[Khmer script]]
***[[Tamil script]]
***[[Grantha script|Grantha]]
****[[Malayalam script]]
**[[Vatteluttu]]
*[[Kadamba script|Kadamba]]
**[[Telugu-Kannada script]]
***[[Kannada script]]
***[[Telugu script]]
*[[Sinhala script|Sinhala]]
*[[Tocharian script|Tocharian]]
| unicode     = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11000.pdf U+11000–U+1107F]
| iso15924    = Brah
}}
{{Contains special characters
| special = uncommon [[Unicode]] characters
| fix     = Help:Multilingual support#Brahmi
| image   = Replacement character.svg
| link    = Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character
| alt     = <?>
| compact = yes
}}
'''Brahmi''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|r|ɑː|m|i}} {{respell|BRAH|mee}}; {{Script|Brah|𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻}}; [[ISO 15919|ISO]]: ''Brāhmī'') is a [[writing system]] from [[ancient India]]<ref name="Salomon1998-p17a">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|p=17}}. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' or 'Lat', 'Southern Aśokan', 'Indian Pali', 'Mauryan', and so on. The application to it of the name Brahmi [''sc. lipi''], which stands at the head of the Buddhist and Jaina script lists, was first suggested by T[errien] de Lacouperie, who noted that in the Chinese Buddhist encyclopedia ''Fa yiian chu lin'' the scripts whose names corresponded to the Brahmi and Kharosthi of the ''Lalitavistara'' are described as written from left to right and from right to left, respectively. He therefore suggested that the name Brahmi should refer to the left-to-right 'Indo-Pali' script of the Aśokan pillar inscriptions, and Kharosthi to the right-to-left 'Bactro-Pali' script of the rock inscriptions from the northwest."</ref> that appeared as a fully developed script in the [[3rd century BC|3rd century BCE]].<ref name="Salomon1998-p17b">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|p=17}}. "...&nbsp;the Brahmi script appeared in the [[3rd century BC|third century BCE]] as a fully developed pan-Indian national script (sometimes used as a second script even within the proper territory of Kharosthi in the north-west) and continued to play this role throughout history, becoming the parent of all of the modern Indic scripts both within India and beyond. Thus, with the exceptions of the Indus script in the protohistoric period, of Kharosthi in the northwest in the ancient period, and of the Perso–Arabic and European scripts in the medieval and modern periods, respectively, the history of writing in India is virtually synonymous with the history of the Brahmi script and its derivatives."</ref> Its descendants, the [[Brahmic scripts]], continue to be used today across [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia|Southeastern Asia]].{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=19–30}}<ref name="Salomon 1995" /><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brahmi |title=Brahmi |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |year=1999 |quote=Among the many descendants of Brāhmī are Devanāgarī (used for Sanskrit, Hindi and other Indian languages), the Bengali and Gujarati scripts and those of the Dravidian languages |access-date=2017-03-21 |archive-date=2020-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719005559/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brahmi |url-status=live}}</ref>

Brahmi is an [[abugida]] and uses a system of [[Diacritic|diacritical marks]] to associate vowels with consonant symbols. The writing system only went through relatively minor evolutionary changes from the [[Mauryan Empire|Mauryan]] period (3rd century BCE) down to the early [[Gupta Empire|Gupta]] period (4th century CE), and it is thought that as late as the 4th century CE, a literate person could still read and understand Mauryan inscriptions.<ref name="CB242">{{cite book |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I. |title=Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17632-1 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 |language=en |access-date=2020-01-01 |archive-date=2021-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014145433/https://books.google.com/books?id=53GYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA242 |url-status=live}}</ref> Sometime thereafter, the ability to read the original Brahmi script was lost. The earliest (indisputably dated) and best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut [[edicts of Ashoka]] in north-central India, dating to 250–232 BCE.

The decipherment of Brahmi became the focus of European scholarly attention in the early 19th century during [[Company rule in India|East India Company rule in India]], in particular in the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]] in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]].<ref name="Lahiri2015">{{cite book|last=Lahiri|first=Nayanjot|author-link=Nayanjot Lahiri|title=Ashoka in Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|year=2015|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-05777-7|pages=14, 15|quote=Facsimiles of the objects and writings unearthed—from pillars in North India to rocks in Orissa and Gujarat—found their way to the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]]. The meetings and publications of the Society provided an unusually fertile environment for innovative speculation, with scholars constantly exchanging notes on, for instance, how they had deciphered the Brahmi letters of various epigraphs from Samudragupta’s Allahabad pillar inscription, to the Karle cave inscriptions. The Eureka moment came in 1837 when James Prinsep, a brilliant secretary of the Asiatic Society, building on earlier pools of epigraphic knowledge, very quickly uncovered the key to the extinct Mauryan Brahmi script. Prinsep unlocked Ashoka; his deciphering of the script made it possible to read the inscriptions.|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-10-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018171535/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Thapar2004">{{cite book|last=Thapar|first=Romila|author-link=Romila Thapar|title=Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC&pg=PA11|year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24225-8|pages=11, 178–179|quote=The nineteenth century saw considerable advances in what came to be called Indology, the study of India by non-Indians using methods of investigation developed by European scholars in the nineteenth century. In India the use of modern techniques to 'rediscover' the past came into practice. Among these was the decipherment of the ''brahmi'' script, largely by James Prinsep. Many inscriptions pertaining to the early past were written in ''brahmi'', but knowledge of how to read the script had been lost. Since inscriptions form the annals of Indian history, this decipherment was a major advance that led to the gradual unfolding of the past from sources other than religious and literary texts. [p. 11] ... Until about a hundred years ago in India, Ashoka was merely one of the many kings mentioned in the Mauryan dynastic list included in the Puranas. Elsewhere in the Buddhist tradition he was referred to as a ''chakravartin'', ..., a universal monarch but this tradition had become extinct in India after the decline of Buddhism. However, in 1837, James Prinsep deciphered an inscription written in the earliest Indian script since the Harappan, ''brahmi''. There were many inscriptions in which the King referred to himself as Devanampiya Piyadassi (the beloved of the gods, Piyadassi). The name did not tally with any mentioned in the dynastic lists, although it was mentioned in the Buddhist chronicles of Sri Lanka. Slowly the clues were put together but the final confirmation came in 1915, with the discovery of yet another version of the edicts in which the King calls himself Devanampiya Ashoka. [pp. 178–179]|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-07-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722060228/https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ConinghamYoung2015">{{cite book|last1=Coningham|first1=Robin|last2=Young|first2=Ruth|title=The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c. 6500 BCE – 200 CE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hB5TCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-84697-4|pages=71–72|quote=Like William Jones, Prinsep was also an important figure within the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal|Asiatic Society]] and is best known for deciphering early Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts. He was something of a polymath, undertaking research into chemistry, meteorology, Indian scriptures, numismatics, archaeology and mineral resources, while fulfilling the role of Assay Master of the East India Company mint in East Bengal (Kolkata). It was his interest in coins and inscriptions that made him such an important figure in the history of South Asian archaeology, utilising inscribed Indo-Greek coins to decipher Kharosthi and pursuing earlier scholarly work to decipher Brahmi.  This work was key to understanding a large part of the Early Historical period in South Asia&nbsp;...|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110142942/https://books.google.com/books?id=hB5TCgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kopf2021">{{cite book|last=Kopf|first=David|author-link=David Kopf|title=British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization 1773–1835|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCboDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265|year=2021|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-36163-8|pages=265–266|quote=In 1837, four years after Wilson's departure, James Prinsep, then Secretary of the Asiatic Society, unravelled the mystery of the Brahmi script and thus was able to read the edicts of the great Emperor Asoka.  The rediscovery of Buddhist India was the last great achievement of the British orientalists. The later discoveries would be made by Continental Orientalists or by Indians themselves.|access-date=2021-03-26|archive-date=2021-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014150447/https://books.google.com/books?id=LCboDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265|url-status=live}}</ref> Brahmi was deciphered by [[James Prinsep]], the secretary of the Society, in a series of scholarly articles in the Society's journal in the 1830s.<ref name="Verma2018">{{cite book|last=Verma|first=Anjali|title=Women and Society in Early Medieval India: Re-interpreting Epigraphs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQFlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27|year=2018|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-429-82642-9|pages=27ff|quote=In 1836, James Prinsep published a long series of facsimiles of ancient inscriptions, and this series continued in volumes of the ''[[Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal]]''. The credit for decipherment of the Brahmi script goes to James Prinsep and thereafter Georg Buhler prepared complete and scientific tables of Brahmi and Khrosthi scripts.|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014184346/https://books.google.com/books?id=wQFlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="KulkeRothermund2016">{{cite book|last1=Kulke|first1=Hermann|author-link1=Hermann Kulke|last2=Rothermund|first2=Dietmar|author-link2=Dietmar Rothermund|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xYelDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-1-317-24212-3|pages=39ff|quote=Ashoka’s reign of more than three decades is the first fairly well-documented period of Indian history. Ashoka left us a series of great inscriptions (major rock edicts, minor rock edicts, pillar edicts) which are among the most important records of India’s past. Ever since they were discovered and deciphered by the British scholar James Prinsep in the 1830s, several generations of Indologists and historians have studied these inscriptions with great care.|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515031024/https://books.google.com/books?id=xYelDQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="WolpertWolpert2009">{{cite book|last=Wolpert|first=Stanley A.|author-link=Stanley Wolpert|title=A New History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JT0wAQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533756-3|page=62|quote=James Prinsep, an amateur epigraphist who worked in the British mint in Calcutta, first deciphered the Brāhmi script.|access-date=2021-03-26|archive-date=2016-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501083356/https://books.google.com/books?id=JT0wAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Chakrabarti2020">{{cite book|last=Chakrabarti|first=Pratik|title=Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaECEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|year=2020|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-1-4214-3874-0|pages=48ff|quote=Prinsep, the Orientalist scholar, as the secretary of the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]] (1832–39), oversaw one of the most productive periods of numismatic and epigraphic study in nineteenth-century India. Between 1833 and 1838, Prinsep published a series of papers based on Indo-Greek coins and his deciphering of Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts.|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014150434/https://books.google.com/books?id=eaECEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|url-status=live}}</ref> His breakthroughs built on the epigraphic work of [[Christian Lassen]], [[Edwin Norris]], [[Horace Hayman Wilson|H. H. Wilson]] and [[Alexander Cunningham]], among others.<ref name="Salomon1998">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=204–205}}. "Prinsep came to India in 1819 as assistant to the assay master of the Calcutta Mint and remained until 1838, when he returned to England for reasons of health. During this period Prinsep made a long series of discoveries in the fields of epigraphy and numismatics as well as in the natural sciences and technical fields. But he is best known for his breakthroughs in the decipherment of the Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts.... Although Prinsep's final decipherment was ultimately to rely on paleographic and contextual rather than statistical methods, it is still no less a tribute to his genius that he should have thought to apply such modern techniques to his problem."</ref><ref name="Sircar2017">{{cite book|last=Sircar|first=D. C.|author-link=D. C. Sircar|title=Indian Epigraphy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ceDuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|year=2017|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-208-4103-1|pages=11ff|orig-date=1965|quote=The work of the reconstruction of the early period of Indian history was inaugurated by European scholars in the 18th century. Later on, Indians also became interested in the subject. The credit for the decipherment of early Indian inscriptions, written in the Brahmi and Kharosthi alphabets, which paved the way for epigraphical and historical studies in India, is due to scholars like Prinsep, Lassen, Norris and Cunningham.|access-date=2021-03-20|archive-date=2021-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014135621/https://books.google.com/books?id=ceDuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="RHP">{{cite book|last=Garg|first=Sanjay|editor=Himanshu Prabha Ray|title=Buddhism and Gandhara: An Archaeology of Museum Collections|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiBBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-25274-4|pages=181ff|chapter=Charles Masson: A footloose antiquarian in Afghanistan and the building up of numismatic collections in museums in India and England|access-date=2018-09-05|archive-date=2020-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102090511/https://books.google.com/books?id=MiBBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT181|url-status=live}}</ref>

The origin of the script is still much debated, with most scholars stating that Brahmi was derived from or at least influenced by one or more contemporary [[Proto-Sinaitic script|Semitic scripts]]. Some scholars favour the idea of an indigenous origin or connection to the much older and as yet undeciphered [[Indus script]]{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=20}}<ref name="scharfe391">{{cite journal|last=Scharfe|first=Hartmut|title=Kharosti and Brahmi|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=122|issue=2|year=2002|pages=391–393|doi=10.2307/3087634|jstor=3087634}}</ref><ref name="Damodaram Pillai">{{cite journal |last1=Damodaram Pillai |first1=Karan |date=2023 |title=The hybrid origin of Brahmi script from Aramaic, Phoenician and Greek letters|url=https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/indialogs.213 |journal=Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies |volume=10 |issue= |pages=93–122 |doi=10.5565/rev/indialogs.213 |s2cid=258147647 |access-date=|doi-access=free }}</ref> but the evidence is insufficient at best.

Brahmi was at one time referred to in English as the "pin-man" script,{{sfn|Keay|2000|p=129–131}} likening the characters to [[stick figure]]s. It was known by a variety of other names, including "lath", "Laṭ", "Southern Aśokan", "Indian Pali" or "Mauryan" {{harv|Salomon|1998|p=17}}, until the 1880s when [[Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie]], based on an observation by [[Gabriel Devéria]], associated it with the Brahmi script, the first in a list of scripts mentioned in the ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra]]''. Thence the name was adopted in the influential work of [[Georg Bühler]], albeit in the variant form "Brahma".{{sfn|Falk|1993|p=106}}

The [[Gupta script]] of the 5th century is sometimes called "Late Brahmi". From the 6th century onward, the Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants, grouped as the [[Brahmic scripts|Brahmic family of scripts]]. Dozens of modern scripts used across South and South East Asia have descended from Brahmi, making it one of the world's most influential writing traditions.{{sfn|Rajgor|2007}} One survey found 198 scripts that ultimately derive from it.{{sfn|Trautmann|2006|p=64}}

Among the [[Pillars of Ashoka|inscriptions of Ashoka]] ({{circa|3rd century BCE}}) written in the Brahmi script a few numerals were found, which have come to be called the [[Brahmi numerals]].{{Sfn|Plofker|2009|pp=44–45}} The numerals are additive and multiplicative and, therefore, not [[Place-value notation|place value]];{{Sfn|Plofker|2009|pp=44–45}} it is not known if their underlying system of numeration has a connection to the Brahmi script.{{Sfn|Plofker|2009|pp=44–45}} But in the second half of the 1st millennium CE, some inscriptions in India and Southeast Asia written in scripts derived from the Brahmi did include numerals that are decimal place value, and constitute the earliest existing material examples of the [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system]], now in use throughout the world.{{Sfn|Plofker|2009|p=45}} The underlying system of numeration, however, was older, as the earliest attested orally transmitted example dates to the middle of the 3rd century CE in a [[Sanskrit]] prose adaptation of a lost [[Hellenistic astrology|Greek work on astrology]].{{Sfn|Plofker|2009|p=47|ps=. "A firm upper bound for the date of this invention is attested by a Sanskrit text of the mid-third century CE, the [[Yavana-jātaka]] or 'Greek horoscopy' of one Sphujidhvaja, which is a versified form of a translated Greek work on astrology. Some numbers in this text appear in concrete number format."}}{{Sfn|Hayashi|2003|p=119}}{{Sfn|Plofker|2007|pp=396–397}}
{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

==Texts==
[[File:Child learning Brahmi Alphabets, Shunga era 2nd Century BCE, National Mseum, New Delhi.jpg|thumb|250px|A northern example of Brahmi epigraphy: ancient terracotta sculpture from [[Srughna|Sugh]] ''"Child learning [[Brahmi]]"'', showing the first letters of the Brahmi alphabet, 2nd century BCE.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chhabra|first=B. Ch.|title=Sugh Terracotta with Brahmi Barakhadi: appears in the Bulletin National Museum No. 2|date=1970|publisher=National Museum|location=New Delhi|url=https://archive.org/details/NationalMuseumBulletinNo.2/page/n1}}</ref>]]

The Brahmi script is mentioned in the ancient Indian texts of the three major [[Indian religions|Dharmic religions]]: [[Hinduism]], [[Jainism]], and [[Buddhism]], as well as their [[Chinese literature|Chinese translations]].<ref name="georgbuhler6">{{cite book|author=Georg Bühler|title=On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfIVUd7BCbAC&pg=PR14|year=1898|publisher=K.J. Trübner|pages=6, 14–15, 23, 29|access-date=2016-10-18|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727132503/https://books.google.com/books?id=kfIVUd7BCbAC&pg=PR14|url-status=live}}, Quote: "(...) a passage of the ''Lalitavistara'' which describes the first visit of Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, to the writing school..." (page 6); "In the account of Prince Siddhartha's first visit to the writing school, extracted by Professor Terrien de la Couperie from the Chinese translation of the Lalitavistara of 308 CE, there occurs besides the mention of the sixty-four alphabets, known also from the printed Sanskrit text, the utterance of the Master Visvamitra[.]"</ref><ref name="salomon8">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pages=8–10 with footnotes}}</ref> For example, the 10th chapter of the ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra]]'' (c. 200–300 CE),<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/wadd.htm |title=The So-Called "Mahapadana" Suttanta and the Date of the Pali Canon |author=L. A. Waddell |journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1914 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=661–680 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00047055 |s2cid=162074807 |accessdate=2022-02-12 |archive-date=2010-12-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206023525/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/wadd.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> titled the ''Lipisala samdarshana parivarta,'' lists 64 ''[[Lipi (script)|lipi]]'' (scripts), with the Brahmi script starting the list. The ''Lalitavistara Sūtra'' states that young Siddhartha, the future [[Gautama Buddha]] (~500 BCE), mastered philology, Brahmi and other scripts from the [[Brahmin]] Lipikāra and Deva Vidyāsiṃha at a school.<ref name="georgbuhler6" /><ref name="nado95">{{cite journal|last1=Nado|first1=Lopon|title=The Development of Language in Bhutan|journal=The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies|date=1982|volume=5|issue=2|page=95|quote=Under different teachers, such as the Brahmin Lipikara and Deva Vidyasinha, he mastered Indian philology and scripts. According to Lalitavistara, there were as many as sixty-four scripts in India.}}</ref>

A list of eighteen ancient scripts is found in the [[Jain literature|early Jaina texts]], such as the ''[[Pannavana Sutta|Paṇṇavaṇā Sūtra]]'' (2nd century BCE) and the ''[[Samavayanga Sutra|Samavāyāṅga Sūtra]]'' (3rd century BCE).<ref name="jaotsungi">{{cite journal|last1=Tsung-i|first1=Jao|title=Chinese Sources on Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī|journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|date=1964|volume=45|issue=1/4|pages=39–47|jstor=41682442}}</ref>{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=9}} These Jain script lists include Brahmi at number 1 and Kharoṣṭhi at number 4, but also Javanaliya (probably [[Koine Greek|Greek]]) and others not found in the Buddhist lists.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=9}}

==Origins==
{{anchor|origin}}
{{Main|Early Indian epigraphy}}

While the contemporary [[Kharosthi|Kharoṣṭhī]] script is widely accepted to be a derivation of the [[Aramaic alphabet]], the genesis of the Brahmi script is less straightforward. Salomon reviewed existing theories in 1998,{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=19–30}} while Falk provided an overview in 1993.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=109–67}}

Early theories proposed a [[pictographic]]-[[acrophonic]] origin for the Brahmi script, on the model of the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphic]] script. These ideas however have lost credence, as they are "purely imaginative and speculative".<ref name="RS19">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=19–20}}</ref> Similar ideas have tried to connect the Brahmi script with the [[Indus script]], but they remain unproven, and particularly suffer from the fact that the Indus script is as yet undeciphered.<ref name="RS19" />

[[File:Theory of pictographic-acrophonic origin of the Brahmi script.jpg|upright=1.6|thumb|A later (mistaken) theory of a [[pictographic]]-[[acrophonic]] origin of the Brahmi script, on the model of the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphic]] script, by [[Alexander Cunningham]] in 1877.]]
The mainstream view is that Brahmi has an origin in [[Phoenician alphabet|Semitic scripts]] (usually Aramaic). This is accepted by the vast majority of script scholars since the publications by [[Albrecht Weber]] (1856) and [[Georg Bühler]]'s ''On the origin of the Indian Brahma alphabet'' (1895).{{sfn|Salomon|1996|p=378}}<ref name="Salomon 1995">{{Cite journal|last=Salomon|first=Richard|title=On The Origin Of The Early Indian Scripts: A Review Article|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=115|issue=2|year=1995|pages=271–279|doi=10.2307/604670|jstor=604670|url=http://indology.info/papers/salomon/|access-date=2013-06-18|archive-date=2019-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522210705/http://www.indology.info/papers/salomon/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Bühler's ideas have been particularly influential, though even by the 1895 date of his opus on the subject, he could identify no fewer than five competing theories of the origin, one positing an indigenous origin and the others deriving it from various Semitic models.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=2}}

The most disputed point about the origin of the Brahmi script has long been whether it was a purely indigenous development or was borrowed or derived from scripts that originated outside India. Goyal (1979)<ref>{{cite book|first=S. R.|last=Goyal|editor1=S. P. Gupta|editor2=K. S. Ramachandran|title=The Origin of Brahmi Script|year=1979}}, apud Salomon (1998).</ref> noted that most proponents of the indigenous view are fringe Indian scholars, whereas the theory of Semitic origin is held by "nearly all" Western scholars, and Salomon agrees with Goyal that there has been "nationalist bias" and "imperialist bias" on the two respective sides of the debate.<ref>{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|p=19}}, fn. 42: "there is no doubt some truth in Goyal's comment that some of their views have been affected by 'nationalist bias' and 'imperialist bias,' respectively."</ref> In spite of this, the view of indigenous development had been prevalent among British scholars writing prior to Bühler: a passage by [[Alexander Cunningham]], one of the earliest indigenous origin proponents, suggests that, in his time, the indigenous origin was a preference of British scholars in opposition to the "unknown Western" origin preferred by [[continental Europe|continental]] scholars.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=2}} Cunningham in the seminal ''Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum'' of 1877 speculated that Brahmi characters were derived from, among other things, a pictographic principle based on the human body,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cunningham |first1=Alexander |title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum |volume=1: Inscriptions of Asoka |date=1877 |publisher=Superintendent of Government Printing |location=Calcutta |page=54}}</ref> but Bühler noted that, by 1891, Cunningham considered the origins of the script uncertain.

{{multiple image
| align = left
| total_width=300
| direction =horizontal
| footer = [[Heliodorus pillar]] in the Indian state of [[Madhya Pradesh]]. Installed about 113 BCE and now named after [[Heliodorus (ambassador)|Heliodorus]], who was an ambassador of the Indo-Greek king [[Antialcidas]] from Taxila, and was sent to the Indian ruler [[Bhagabhadra]]. The pillar's Brahmi-script inscription states that Heliodorus is a ''Bhagvatena'' (devotee) of [[Vāsudeva]]. A couplet in it closely paraphrases a Sanskrit verse from the ''Mahabharata''.<ref>{{cite book|first1=F. R.|last1=Allchin|first2=George|last2=Erdosy|title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5kI02_zW70C&pg=PA309|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-37695-2|pages=309–10|access-date=2017-03-24 |archive-date=2017-03-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325040004/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q5kI02_zW70C&pg=PA309 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=L. A. |last=Waddell |year=1914 |title=Besnagar Pillar Inscription B Re-Interpreted |journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=46 |issue=4 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=1031–37 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00047523 |s2cid=163470608 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1850595 |access-date=2022-07-13 |archive-date=2022-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827173147/https://zenodo.org/record/1850595 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| image1 = Heliodorus pillar.jpg
| image2 = Heliodorus pillar inscription.jpg
}}
Most scholars believe that Brahmi was likely derived from or influenced by a Semitic script model, with Aramaic being a leading candidate.<ref name="britbrahmiscript">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brahmi |title=Brahmi |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |year=1999 |quote=Brāhmī, writing system ancestral to all Indian scripts except Kharoṣṭhī. Of Aramaic derivation or inspiration, it can be traced to the 8th or 7th century BCE, when it may have been introduced to Indian merchants by people of Semitic origin.… a coin of the 4th century BCE, discovered in Madhya Pradesh, is inscribed with Brāhmī characters running from right to left. |access-date=2017-03-21 |archive-date=2020-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719005559/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brahmi |url-status=live}}</ref> However, the issue is not settled due to the lack of direct evidence and unexplained differences between Aramaic, Kharoṣṭhī, and Brahmi.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=18–24}} Though Brahmi and the [[Kharoṣṭhī]] script share some general features, the differences between the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts are "much greater than their similarities", and "the overall differences between the two render a direct linear development connection unlikely", states Richard Salomon.<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=23, 46–54|oclc=252595337}}</ref>

Virtually all authors accept that regardless of the origins, the differences between the Indian script and those proposed to have influenced it are significant. The degree of Indian development of the Brahmi script in both the graphic form and the structure has been extensive. It is also widely accepted that theories about the [[grammar of the Vedic language]] probably had a strong influence on this development. Some authors – both Western and Indian – suggest that Brahmi was borrowed or inspired by a Semitic script, invented in a short few years during the reign of Ashoka, and then used widely for Ashokan inscriptions.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=18–24}} In contrast, some authors reject the idea of foreign influence.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=19–21 with footnotes}}{{Sfn|Annette Wilke|Oliver Moebus|2011|p=194 with footnote 421}}

[[Bruce Trigger]] states that Brahmi likely emerged from the Aramaic script (with extensive local development), but there is no evidence of a direct common source.<ref name="trigger60">{{cite book |first=Bruce G. |last=Trigger |chapter=Writing Systems: a case study in cultural evolution |title=The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |editor-first=Stephen D. |editor-last=Houston |pages=60–61}}</ref> According to Trigger, Brahmi was in use before the Ashoka pillars, at least by the 4th or 5th century BCE in [[Sri Lanka]] and India, while Kharoṣṭhī was used only in northwest South Asia (eastern parts of modern Afghanistan and neighboring regions of Pakistan) for a while before it died out in the third century.<ref name="trigger60" /> According to Salomon, evidence of the use of Kharoṣṭhī is found primarily in Buddhist records and those of Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, Indo-Parthian, and Kushana dynasty era.<ref name=":0" />

Justeson and Stephens proposed that this inherent vowel system in Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī developed by transmission of a Semitic [[abjad]] through the recitation of its letter values. The idea is that learners of the source alphabet recite the sounds by combining the consonant with an unmarked vowel, e.g. {{IPA|/kə/, /kʰə/, /gə/}}, and in the process of borrowing into another language, these syllables are taken to be the sound values of the symbols. They also accepted the idea that Brahmi was based on a North Semitic model.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Justeson |first1=J. S. |last2=Stephens |first2=L. D. |title=The evolution of syllabaries from alphabets |journal=Die Sprache |date=1993 |volume=35 |pages=2–46 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6805639 |access-date=2017-12-02 |archive-date=2021-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308140529/https://www.academia.edu/6805639/Justeson_Stephens_1994_evolution_of_syllabaries_from_alphabets |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Semitic hypothesis===
{{anchor|semitic}}
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px;"
|+ Bühler's aspirate derivations 
|-style="text-align:center"
|-
! IAST !! {{nowrap|–aspirate}} !! {{nowrap|+aspirate}} !! origin of aspirate according to Bühler
|-
| k/kh || [[File:Brahmi k.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi kh.svg|15px]] || Semitic emphatic ([[qoph]]) 
|-	
| g/gh || [[File:Brahmi g.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi gh.svg|15px]] || Semitic emphatic ([[heth]]) (hook addition in Bhattiprolu script)
|-
| c/ch || [[File:Brahmi c.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi ch.svg|15px]] || curve addition
|-
| j/jh || [[File:Brahmi j.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi jh.svg|15px]] || hook addition with some alteration
|-
| p/ph || [[File:Brahmi p.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi ph.svg|15px]] || curve addition	
|-
| b/bh || [[File:Brahmi b.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi bh.svg|15px]] || hook addition with some alteration	
|-	
| t/th || [[File:Brahmi t.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi th.svg|15px]] || Semitic emphatic ([[teth]])
|-
| d/dh || [[File:Brahmi d.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi dh.svg|15px]] || unaspirated glyph back formed
|-	
| ṭ/ṭh || [[File:Brahmi tt.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi tth.svg|15px]] || unaspirated glyph back formed as if aspirated glyph with curve
|-
| ḍ/ḍh || [[File:Brahmi dd.svg|15px]] || [[File:Brahmi ddh.svg|15px]] || curve addition 
|}
Many scholars link the origin of Brahmi to Semitic script models, particularly Aramaic.{{sfn|Salomon|1996|p=378}} The explanation of how this might have happened, the particular Semitic script, and the chronology of the derivation have been the subject of much debate. Bühler followed [[Albrecht Weber]] in connecting it particularly to Phoenician, and proposed an early 8th century BCE date{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=84–91}} for the borrowing. A link to the [[South Semitic scripts]], a less prominent branch of the Semitic script family, has occasionally been proposed, but has not gained much acceptance.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=23–24}} Finally, the Aramaic script being the prototype for Brahmi has been the more preferred hypothesis because of its geographic proximity to the Indian subcontinent, and its influence likely arising because Aramaic was the bureaucratic language of the Achaemenid empire. However, this hypothesis does not explain the mystery of why two very different scripts, Kharoṣṭhī and Brahmi, developed from the same Aramaic. A possible explanation might be that Ashoka created an imperial script for his edicts, but there is no evidence to support this conjecture.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|p=28}}
{{clear}}
The chart below shows the close resemblance that Brahmi has with the first four letters of Semitic script, the first column representing the [[Phoenician alphabet]].

{| class="wikitable" id="letters_chart"
|-
! colspan="2" | Letter
! rowspan="2" | Name<ref>After {{cite book |first=Steven R. |last=Fischer |year=2001 |title=A History of Writing |publisher=Reaction Books |location=London |page=126}}</ref>
! rowspan="2" | [[Phoneme]]
! colspan="2" | Origin
! colspan="12" | Corresponding letter in
|-
! Image
! Text
! [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Hieroglyphs]]
! [[Proto-Sinaitic]]
! [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]]
! [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]]
! [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]]
! [[Greek alphabet|Greek]]
! Brahmi
|-
| {{Anchor|aleph}}[[File:Phoenician aleph.svg|20px|Aleph]]
| {{huge|{{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|𐤀}}}}}}
| [[Aleph|ʾālep]]
| ʾ {{IPAblink|ʔ}}
| 𓃾
| [[File:Proto-semiticA-01.svg|20px]]
| {{script|Armi|𐡀}}
| [[Aleph|א]]
| [[Aleph|ܐ]]
| [[Α]]α
| 𑀅

|-
| {{Anchor|Beth|Bet}}[[File:Phoenician beth.svg|20px|Beth]]
| {{huge|{{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|𐤁}}}}}}
| [[Bet (letter)|bēt]]
| b {{IPAblink|b}}
| 𓉐
| [[File:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|20px]]
| {{script|Armi|𐡁}}
| [[Bet (letter)|ב]]
| [[Bet (letter)|ܒ]]
| [[Beta (letter)|Β]]β
| 𑀩
 
|-
| {{Anchor|Gimel}}[[File:Phoenician gimel.svg|20px|Gimel]]
| {{huge|{{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|𐤂}}}}}}
| [[gimel|gīml]]
| g {{IPAblink|ɡ}}
| 𓌙
| [[File:Proto-semiticG-01.svg|20px]]
| {{script|Armi|𐡂}}
| [[Gimel|ג]]
| [[Gimel|ܓ]]
| [[Γ]]γ
| 𑀕
 
|-
| {{Anchor|Daleth|Dalet}}[[File:Phoenician daleth.svg|20px|Daleth]]
| {{huge|{{lang|phn|{{script|Phnx|𐤃}}}}}}
| [[Dalet|dālet]]
| d {{IPAblink|d}}
| 𓇯
| [[File:Proto-semiticD-01.svg|20px]] [[File:Proto-semiticD-02.svg|20px]]
| {{script|Armi|𐡃}}
| [[Dalet|ד]]
| [[Dalet|ܕ]]
| [[Δ]]δ
| 𑀥
|}

====Bühler's hypothesis====
According to the Semitic hypothesis as laid out by Bühler in 1898, the oldest Brahmi inscriptions were derived from a Phoenician prototype.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=59,68,71,75}}{{refn|group=note|Aramaic is written from right to left, as are several early examples of Brahmi.{{sfn|Salomon|1996}}{{page needed|date=March 2017}} For example, Brahmi and Aramaic ''g'' (𑀕 and 𐡂) and Brahmi and Aramaic ''t'' (𑀢 and 𐡕) are nearly identical, as are several other pairs. Bühler also perceived a pattern of derivation in which certain characters were turned upside down, as with ''pe'' 𐡐 and 𑀧 ''pa'', which he attributed to a stylistic preference against top-heavy characters.}} Salomon states Bühler's arguments are "weak historical, geographical, and chronological justifications for a Phoenician prototype". Discoveries made since Bühler's proposal, such as of six Mauryan inscriptions in Aramaic, suggest Bühler's proposal about Phoenician as weak. It is more likely that Aramaic, which was virtually certainly the prototype for Kharoṣṭhī, also may have been the basis for Brahmi. However, it is unclear why the ancient Indians would have developed two very different scripts.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=28}}

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px;"
 |+ Comparison of North Semitic and Brahmi scripts{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=25}}{{refn|group=note|Bühler notes that other authors derive [[File:Brahmi ch.svg|15px]] (cha) from qoph. "M.L." indicates that the letter was used as a ''[[mater lectionis]]'' in some phase of Phoenician or Aramaic. The ''matres lectionis'' functioned as occasional vowel markers to indicate medial and final vowels in the otherwise consonant-only script. Aleph 𐤀 and particularly ʿayin 𐤏 only developed this function in later phases of Phoenician and related scripts, though 𐤀 also sometimes functioned to mark an initial [[Prothesis (linguistics)|prosthetic (or prothetic)]] vowel from a very early period.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Andersen|first1=F. I.|last2=Freedman|first2=D. N.|title=Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography|date=1992|publisher=Eisenbrauns|location=Winona Lake, [[Indiana|IN]] |pages=79–90|chapter=Aleph as a vowel in Old Aramaic}}</ref>}}
 |-style="text-align:center"
 ![[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] !! [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] !! Value !! style="background: #ffaa66;" | Brahmi !! style="background: #ffaa66;" |Value
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician aleph.svg|15px|Aleph]] || [[Image:Aleph.svg|15px]] || * || [[File:Brahmi a.svg|15px]] || a
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician beth.svg|15px|Beth]] || [[Image:Beth.svg|15px]] || b {{IPAblink|b}} || [[File:Brahmi b.svg|15px]] ||ba 
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician gimel.svg|15px|Gimel]] || [[Image:Gimel.svg|15px]] || g {{IPAblink|ɡ}} || [[File:Brahmi g.svg|15px]] || ga
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician daleth.svg|15px|Daleth]]||[[File:daleth.svg|15px]] || d {{IPAblink|d}} || [[File:Brahmi dh.svg|15px]] || dha
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician he.svg|15px|He]] || [[Image:he0.svg|15px|He]] || h {{IPAblink|h}}, M.L. || [[File:Brahmi h.svg|15px]] || ha
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician waw.svg|15px|Waw]] || [[File:waw.svg|15px|Waw]] || w {{IPAblink|w}}, M.L. || [[File:Brahmi v.svg|15px]] || va 
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician zayin.svg|15px|Zayin]] || [[Image:zayin.svg|15px|Zayin]] ||  z {{IPAblink|z}} || [[File:Brahmi j.svg|15px]] || ja
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician heth.svg|15px|Heth]] || [[Image:heth.svg|15px|Heth]] || ḥ {{IPAblink|ħ}}  || [[File:Brahmi gh.svg|15px]] || gha
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician teth.svg|15px|Teth]] ||[[File:teth.svg|15px|Teth]] || ṭ {{IPAblink|tˤ}} || [[File:Brahmi th.svg|15px]] || tha
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician yodh.svg|15px|Yodh]] || [[Image:yod.svg|15px|Yodh]] || y {{IPAblink|j}}, M.L. || [[File:Brahmi y.svg|15px]] || ya
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician kaph.svg|15px|Kaph]] || [[File:kaph.svg|15px|Kaph]] || k {{IPAblink|k}} || [[File:Brahmi k.svg|15px]] || ka
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician lamedh.svg|15px|Lamedh]] ||[[Image:lamed.svg|15px|Lamedh]]|| l {{IPAblink|l}} || [[File:Brahmi l.svg|15px]] || la 
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician mem.svg|15px|Mem]] || [[Image:mem.svg|15px|Mem]] || m {{IPAblink|m}} || [[File:Brahmi m.svg|15px]] || ma 
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician nun.svg|15px|Nun]] ||[[Image:nun.svg|15px|Nun]] || n {{IPAblink|n}} || [[File:Brahmi n.svg|15px]] || na
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician samekh.svg|15px|Samekh]] ||[[Image:samekh.svg|15px|Samekh]] || s {{IPAblink|s}} || [[File:Brahmi ss.svg|15px]] || ṣa
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician ayin.svg|15px|Ayin]] ||[[Image:ayin.svg|15px|Ayin]] || ʿ {{IPAblink|ʕ}},  M.L. || [[File:Brahmi e.svg|15px]] || e
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician pe.svg|15px|Pe]] ||[[File:pe0.svg|15px|Pe]] || p {{IPAblink|p}} || [[File:Brahmi p.svg|15px]] || pa
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician sade.svg|15px|Sadek]] ||[[Image:sade_1.svg|15px|Sadek]] || ṣ {{IPAblink|sˤ}} || [[File:Brahmi c.svg|15px]] || ca
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician qoph.svg|15px|Qoph]] ||[[Image:qoph.svg|15px|Qoph]] || q {{IPAblink|q}} || [[File:Brahmi kh.svg|15px]] || kha
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[Image:Phoenician res.svg|15px|Res]] ||[[Image:resh.svg|15px|Res]] || r {{IPAblink|r}} || [[File:Brahmi r.svg|15px]] || ra
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician sin.svg|15px|Sin]] ||[[File:shin.svg|15px|Sin]] || š {{IPAblink|ʃ}} || [[File:Brahmi sh.svg|15px]] || śa
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |[[File:Phoenician taw.svg|15px|Taw]] ||[[File:taw.svg|15px|Taw]]|| t {{IPAblink|t}} || [[File:Brahmi t.svg|15px]] || ta
 |-style="text-align:center"
 |}
According to Bühler, Brahmi added symbols for certain sounds not found in Semitic languages, and either deleted or repurposed symbols for Aramaic sounds not found in Prakrit. For example, Aramaic lacks the [[retroflex consonant|phonetic retroflex feature]] that appears among Prakrit [[Dental consonant|dental]] stops, such as {{IAST|ḍ}}, and in Brahmi the symbols of the retroflex and non-retroflex consonants are graphically very similar, as if both had been derived from a single prototype. (See [[Tibetan alphabet#Consonants|Tibetan alphabet]] for a similar later development.) Aramaic did not have Brahmi's [[aspirated consonant]]s ({{IAST|kh}}, {{IAST|th}}, etc.), whereas Brahmi did not have Aramaic's [[emphatic consonant]]s (''{{transliteration|sem|q, ṭ, ṣ}}''), and it appears that these unneeded emphatic letters filled in for some of Brahmi's aspirates: Aramaic ''q'' for Brahmi ''kh,'' Aramaic ''ṭ'' (Θ) for Brahmi ''th'' ({{IPA|ʘ}}), etc. And just where Aramaic did not have a corresponding emphatic stop, ''p'', Brahmi seems to have doubled up for the corresponding aspirate: Brahmi ''p'' and ''ph'' are graphically very similar, as if taken from the same source in Aramaic ''p''. Bühler saw a systematic derivational principle for the other aspirates ''ch'', ''jh'', ''ph'', ''bh'', and ''dh'', which involved adding a curve or upward hook to the right side of the character (which has been speculated to derive from ''h'', [[File:Brahmi h.svg|15px]]), while ''d'' and ''ṭ'' (not to be confused with the Semitic emphatic {{transliteration|sem|ṭ}}) were derived by back formation from ''dh'' and ''ṭh''.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=76–77}}

The attached table lists the correspondences between Brahmi and North Semitic scripts.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=82–83}}{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=25}}

Bühler states that both Phoenician and Brahmi had three voiceless [[sibilant]]s, but because the alphabetical ordering was lost, the correspondences among them are not clear. Bühler was able to suggest Brahmi derivatives corresponding to all of the 22 North Semitic characters, though clearly, as Bühler himself recognized, some are more confident than others. He tended to place much weight on phonetic congruence as a guideline, for example connecting ''c'' [[File:Brahmi c.svg|15px]] to [[tsade]] 𐤑 rather than [[kaph]] 𐤊, as preferred by many of his predecessors.

One of the key problems with a Phoenician derivation is the lack of evidence for historical contact with Phoenicians in the relevant period.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=28}} Bühler explained this by proposing that the initial borrowing of Brahmi characters dates back considerably earlier than the earliest known evidence, as far back as 800&nbsp;BCE, contemporary with the Phoenician glyph forms that he mainly compared. Bühler cited a near-modern practice of writing Brahmic scripts informally without vowel diacritics as a possible continuation of this earlier abjad-like stage in development.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=84–91}}

The weakest forms of the Semitic hypothesis are similar to Gnanadesikan's [[trans-cultural diffusion]] view of the development of Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī, in which the idea of alphabetic sound representation was learned from the Aramaic-speaking Persians, but much of the writing system was a novel development tailored to the phonology of Prakrit.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Amalia E. |last=Gnanadesikan |title=The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet |publisher=John Wiley and Sons Ltd. |year=2009 |pages=173–174}}</ref>

Further evidence cited in favor of Persian influence has been the Hultzsch proposal in 1925 that the Prakrit/Sanskrit word for writing itself, ''lipi'' is similar to the Old Persian word ''dipi'', suggesting a probable borrowing.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hultzsch|first1=E.|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum |volume=1: Inscriptions of Asoka|date=1925|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford |page=xlii|url=https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n44/mode/1up|access-date=8 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="Scharfe 2002" /> A few of the Ashoka edicts from the region nearest the Persian empire use ''dipi'' as the Prakrit word for writing, which appears as ''lipi'' elsewhere, and this geographic distribution has long been taken, at least back to Bühler's time, as an indication that the standard ''lipi'' form is a later alteration that appeared as it diffused away from the Persian sphere of influence. Persian ''dipi'' itself is thought to be an [[Elamite language|Elamite]] loanword.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tavernier|first1=Jan|title=The Case of Elamite Tep-/Tip- and Akkadian Tuppu|journal=Iran|date=2007|volume=45|pages=57–69|url=https://archive.org/stream/Tavernier2007THECASEOFELAMITETEPTIPANDAKKADIANTUPPU/Tavernier%202007%20THE%20CASE%20OF%20ELAMITE%20TEP-TIP-%20AND%20AKKADIAN%20%E1%B9%ACUPPU_djvu.txt|access-date=8 April 2015|doi=10.1080/05786967.2007.11864718|s2cid=191052711}}</ref>
{{clear}}

====Greek-Semitic model hypothesis====
[[File:Coin of the Bactrian King Agathokles.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|Coin (circa 180 BCE) of [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] with Indian deities, in Greek and Brahmi.<br />Obverse: With Greek legend: {{lang|grc|ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ}} (''Basileōs Agathokleous'').<br />Reverse: With [[Brahmi]] legend:{{script|Brah|𑀭𑀸𑀚𑀦𑁂 𑀅𑀕𑀣𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀮𑀬𑁂𑀲}} {{Transliteration|Brah|Rājane Agathukleyesa}}  .<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bopearachchi|first=Osmund|date=1993|title=On the so-called earliest representation of Ganesa|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1993_num_3_2_1479|journal=Topoi. Orient-Occident|volume=3|issue=2|doi=10.3406/topoi.1993.1479|page=436|access-date=2022-07-27|archive-date=2022-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727044511/https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1993_num_3_2_1479|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bopearachchi" />]]
Falk's 1993 book {{lang|de|Schrift im Alten Indien}} is a study on writing in ancient India,<ref name="bronkhorst2002lar" />{{sfn|Falk|1993}} and has a section on the origins of Brahmi.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=109–167}} It features an extensive review of the literature up to that time. Falk sees the basic [[writing system]] of Brahmi as being derived from the Kharoṣṭhī script, itself a derivative of Aramaic. At the time of his writing, the Ashoka edicts were the oldest confidently dateable examples of Brahmi, and he perceives in them "a clear development in language from a faulty linguistic style to a well honed one"{{Sfn|Annette Wilke |Oliver Moebus |2011|p=194, footnote 421}} over time, which he takes to indicate that the script had been recently developed.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=109–167}}<ref name="salomon1995rev" /> Falk deviates from the mainstream of opinion in seeing Greek as also being a significant source for Brahmi. On this point particularly, Salomon disagrees with Falk, and after presenting evidence of very different methodology between Greek and Brahmi notation of vowel quantity, he states "it is doubtful whether Brahmi derived even the basic concept from a Greek prototype".{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|p=22}} Further, adds Salomon, in a "limited sense Brahmi can be said to be derived from Kharosthi, but in terms of the actual forms of the characters, the differences between the two Indian scripts are much greater than the similarities".{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=23}}

Falk also dated the origin of Kharoṣṭhī to no earlier than 325&nbsp;BCE, based on a proposed connection to the Greek conquest.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=104}} Salomon questions Falk's arguments as to the date of Kharoṣṭhī and writes that it is "speculative at best and hardly constitutes firm grounds for a late date for Kharoṣṭhī. The stronger argument for this position is that we have no specimen of the script before the time of Ashoka, nor any direct evidence of intermediate stages in its development; but of course this does not mean that such earlier forms did not exist, only that, if they did exist, they have not survived, presumably because they were not employed for monumental purposes before Ashoka".<ref name="salomon1995rev">{{cite journal |last=Salomon |first=Richard |title=Review: On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=115 |issue=2 |year=1995 |pages=271–278 |doi=10.2307/604670 |jstor=604670}}</ref>

Unlike Bühler, Falk does not provide details of which and how the presumptive prototypes may have been mapped to the individual characters of Brahmi. Further, states Salomon, Falk accepts there are anomalies in phonetic value and diacritics in Brahmi script that are not found in the presumed Kharoṣṭhī script source. Falk attempts to explain these anomalies by reviving the Greek influence hypothesis, a hypothesis that had previously fallen out of favor.<ref name="salomon1995rev" />{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=19–24}}

Hartmut Scharfe, in his 2002 review of Kharoṣṭī and Brāhmī scripts, concurs with Salomon's questioning of Falk's proposal, and states, "the pattern of the phonemic analysis of the Sanskrit language achieved by the Vedic scholars is much closer to the Brahmi script than the Greek alphabet".<ref name="scharfe391" />

As of 2018, Harry Falk refined his view by affirming that Brahmi was developed from scratch in a rational way at the time of [[Ashoka]], by consciously combining the advantages of the pre-existing [[Greek script]] and northern [[Kharosthi]] script.<ref name="HF57" /> Greek-style letter types were selected for their "broad, upright and symmetrical form", and writing from left to right was also adopted for its convenience.<ref name="HF57" /> On the other hand, the Kharosthi treatment of vowels was retained, with its inherent vowel "a", derived from [[Aramaic]], and stroke additions to represent other vowel signs.<ref name="HF57" /> In addition, a new system of combining consonants vertically to represent complex sounds was also developed.<ref name="HF57">{{cite journal |last1=Falk |first1=Harry |title=The Creation and Spread of Scripts in Ancient India |journal=Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life |pages=43–66 (online 57–58) |date=2018 |doi=10.1515/9783110594065-004 |isbn=9783110594065 |s2cid=134470331 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37342561 |language=en |access-date=2020-01-04 |archive-date=2021-12-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210121509/https://www.academia.edu/37342561 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Indigenous origin hypothesis===

The possibility of an indigenous origin such as a connection to the [[Indus script]] is supported by some Western and Indian scholars and writers. The theory that there are similarities to the Indus script was suggested by early European scholars such as the archaeologist [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|John Marshall]]<ref>{{cite book|author=John Marshall|title=Mohenjo-daro and the Indus civilization: being an official account of archaeological excavations at Mohenjo-Daro carried out by the government of India between the years 1922 and 1927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds_hazstxY4C&pg=PA423|year=1931|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1179-5|page=423|quote=Langdon also suggested that the Brahmi script was derived from the Indus writing,&nbsp;...|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727131608/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds_hazstxY4C&pg=PA423|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Assyriologist [[Stephen Herbert Langdon|Stephen Langdon]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Senarat Paranavitana|author2=Leelananda Prematilleka|author3=Johanna Engelberta van Lohuizen-De Leeuw|title=Studies in South Asian Culture: Senarat Paranavitana Commemoration Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|year=1978|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=90-04-05455-3|page=119|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224163153/https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|url-status=live}}</ref> G. R. Hunter in his book ''The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts'' (1934) proposed a derivation of the Brahmi alphabets from the Indus script, the match being considerably higher than that of Aramaic in his estimation.<ref name="Hunter 1934">{{cite book |title=The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and Its Connection with Other Scripts |last=Hunter |first=G. R. |year=1934 |location=London |publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trubner |series=Studies in the history of culture |url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00013642/ |access-date=2013-06-20 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224171105/https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00013642/00001 |url-status=live}}</ref> British archaeologist [[Raymond Allchin]] stated that there is a powerful argument against the idea that the Brahmi script has Semitic borrowing because the whole structure and conception is quite different. He at one time suggested that the origin may have been purely indigenous with the Indus script as its predecessor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |pages=301–302 (note 4)}}</ref> However, Allchin and Erdosy later in 1995 expressed the opinion that there was as yet insufficient evidence to resolve the question.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Allchin |first1=F. Raymond |last2=Erdosy |first2=George |title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |page=336}}</ref>

[[File:Brahmi and Indus seal proposed connection.jpg|thumb|left|A proposed connection between the Brahmi and Indus scripts, made in the 19th century by [[Alexander Cunningham]].]]
Today the indigenous origin hypothesis is more commonly promoted by non-specialists, such as the computer scientist [[Subhash Kak]], the spiritual teachers [[David Frawley]] and [[Georg Feuerstein]], and the social anthropologist [[Jack Goody]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Georg Feuerstein|author2=Subhash Kak|author3=David Frawley|title=The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA136|year=2005 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-2037-1|pages=136–37|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727131430/https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA136|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Jack|last=Goody|title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC&pg=PA301|year=1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-33794-6|page=301 fn. 4 |quote=In recent years, I have been leaning towards the view that the Brahmi script had an independent Indian evolution, probably emerging from the breakdown of the old Harappan script in the first half of the second millennium BC.|access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224153233/https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC&pg=PA301 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Paranavitana119>{{cite book|author1=Senarat Paranavitana|author2=Leelananda Prematilleka|author3=Johanna Engelberta van Lohuizen-De Leeuw|title=Studies in South Asian Culture: Senarat Paranavitana Commemoration Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119|year=1978 |publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=90-04-05455-3|pages=119–20 with footnotes|access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224163153/https://books.google.com/books?id=OIceAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA119 |url-status=live}}</ref> Subhash Kak disagrees with the proposed Semitic origins of the script,<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Subhash |last=Kak |title=The evolution of early writing in India |journal=Indian Journal of History of Science |volume=28 |pages=375–88 |year=1994 |url=http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/writ.pdf |access-date=2013-06-19 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224150452/https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/writ.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> instead stating that the interaction between the Indic and the Semitic worlds before the rise of the Semitic scripts might imply a reverse process.<ref>Kak, S. (2005). [http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/Akhenaten.pdf "Akhenaten, Surya, and the Rigveda"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204161430/http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/Akhenaten.pdf |date=2007-02-04}}. In [[Govind Chandra Pande]] (ed.), ''The Golden Chain'', CRC, 2005.</ref> However, the chronology thus presented and the notion of an unbroken tradition of literacy is opposed by a majority of academics who support an indigenous origin. Evidence for a continuity between Indus and Brahmi has also been seen in graphic similarities between Brahmi and the late Indus script, where the ten most common ligatures correspond with the form of one of the ten most common glyphs in Brahmi.<ref>Kak, S. (1988). [http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/IndusFreqAnalysis.pdf "A frequency analysis of the Indus script"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224125037/https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/IndusFreqAnalysis.pdf |date=2021-02-24}}. ''Cryptologia'' 12: 129–143.</ref> There is also corresponding evidence of continuity in the use of numerals.<ref>Kak, S. (1990). "Indus and Brahmi – further connections". ''Cryptologia'' 14: 169–83</ref> Further support for this continuity comes from statistical analysis of the relationship carried out by Das.<ref>Das, S.; Ahuja, A.; Natarajan, B.; Panigrahi, B. K. (2009). "Multi-objective optimization of Kullback-Leibler divergence between Indus and Brahmi writing". ''World Congress on Nature & Biologically Inspired Computing 2009''. NaBIC 2009. 1282–86. {{ISBN|978-1-4244-5053-4}}</ref>

Salomon considered simple graphic similarities between characters to be insufficient evidence for a connection without knowing the phonetic values of the Indus script, though he found apparent similarities in patterns of compounding and diacritical modification to be "intriguing". However, he felt that it was premature to explain and evaluate them due to the large chronological gap between the scripts and the thus far indecipherable nature of the Indus script.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=20–21}}

The main obstacle to this idea is the lack of evidence for writing during the millennium and a half between the collapse of the [[Indus Valley civilisation]] around 1500 BCE and the first widely accepted appearance of Brahmi in the 3rd or 4th centuries BCE. Iravathan Mahadevan makes the point that even if one takes the latest dates of 1500 BCE for the Indus script and earliest claimed dates of Brahmi around 500 BCE, a thousand years still separates the two.<ref name="Mahadevan interview">{{cite web|last1=Khan|first1=Omar|title=Mahadevan Interview: Full Text|url=http://www.harappa.com/script/mahadevantext.html|website=Harappa|access-date=4 June 2015|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004072737/https://www.harappa.com/script/mahadevantext.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Furthermore, there is no accepted decipherment of the Indus script, which makes theories based on claimed decipherments tenuous.

A promising possible link between the Indus script and later writing traditions may be in the [[megalithic graffiti symbols]] of the South Indian megalithic culture, which may have some overlap with the Indus symbol inventory and persisted in use up at least through the appearance of the Brahmi and scripts up into the third century CE. These graffiti usually appear singly, though on occasion may be found in groups of two or three, and are thought to have been family, clan, or religious symbols.<ref>{{cite book |title=Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE |chapter=Inscribed pots, emerging identities |first=Himanshu Prabha |last=Ray |pages=121–122 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |editor=Patrick Olivelle |editor-link=Patrick Olivelle}}</ref> In 1935, C. L. Fábri proposed that symbols found on Mauryan [[punch-marked coins]] were remnants of the Indus script that had survived the collapse of the Indus civilization.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fábri|first1=C. L.|title=The Punch-Marked Coins: A Survival of the Indus Civilization|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|date=1935|volume=67|issue=2|pages=307–318|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00086482|jstor=25201111|s2cid=162603638}}</ref>

Another form of the indigenous origin theory is that Brahmi was invented ''ex nihilo'', entirely independently from either Semitic models or the Indus script, though Salomon found these theories to be wholly speculative in nature.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=21}}

====Foreign origination====
[[File:Ashoka Sarnath Lipii word.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|The word ''[[Lipī]]'' ({{script|Brah|𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀻}}) used by [[Ashoka]] to describe his "[[Edicts of Ashoka|Edicts]]". Brahmi script (Li=<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1102E;}}</code>La+<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1103A;}}</code>i; pī=<code>{{script|Brah|&#x11027;}}</code>Pa+<code>{{script|Brah|&#x1103B;}}</code>ii). The word would be of [[Old Persian]] origin ("Dipi").]]
{{main|Lipi (script)}}
[[Pāṇini]] (6th to 4th century BCE) mentions ''[[Lipi (script)|lipi]]'', the Indian word for writing scripts in his definitive work on [[Sanskrit]] grammar, the ''Ashtadhyayi''. According to Scharfe, the words ''lipi'' and ''libi'' are borrowed from the [[Old Persian]] ''dipi'', in turn derived from Sumerian ''dup''.<ref name="Scharfe 2002">{{cite book |last=Scharfe |first=Hartmut |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies |title=Education in Ancient India |pages=10–12 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=Leiden, Netherlands}}</ref>{{sfn|Masica|1993|p=135}} To describe his own Edicts, Ashoka used the word ''[[Lipī]]'', now generally simply translated as "writing" or "inscription". It is thought the word "lipi", which is also orthographed "dipi" in the two [[Kharosthi]]-version of the rock edicts,{{refn|group=note|[[File:Dhrama Dipi inscription in the Shahbazgarhi First Edict in the Kharosthi script.jpg|right|120px|thumb|"[[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|Dipi]]" in [[Kharosthi]] script.]]For example, according to Hultzsch, the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]] (or at [[Mansehra]]) reads: ''(Ayam) [[Dharma|Dhrama]]-[[Lipi (script)|dipi]] Devanapriyasa Raño likhapitu'' ("This Dharma-Edict was written by King [[Devanampriya]]" {{cite book |title=Inscriptions of Asoka |edition=New |first=E. |last=Hultzsch |date=1925 |page=51 |url=https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n191/mode/2up |language=sa}} This appears in the reading of Hultzsch's original rubbing of the [[Kharoshthi]] inscription of the first line of the First Edict at [[Shahbazgarhi]] (here attached, which reads "Di" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Di.jpg|15px]] rather than "Li" [[File:Kharoshthi letter Li.jpg|15px]]).}} comes from an [[Old Persian]] prototype ''dipî'' also meaning "inscription", which is used for example by [[Darius I]] in his [[Behistun inscription]],{{refn|group=note|For example [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/behistun-persian-text/behistun-t-42/ Column IV, Line 89]}} suggesting borrowing and diffusion.<ref name="Hultzsch">{{cite book|last1=Hultzsch|first1=E.|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum |volume=1: Inscriptions of Asoka|year=1925 |publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford |page=xlii |url=https://archive.org/stream/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/HultzschCorpusAsokaSearchable#page/n44/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sharma |first1=R. S. |title=India's Ancient Past |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199087860 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |language=en |access-date=2018-09-19 |archive-date=2021-07-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713053839/https://books.google.com/books?id=giwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT163 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"The word dipi appears in the Old Persian inscription of Darius I at Behistan (Column IV. 39) having the meaning inscription or 'written document'." {{cite book |title=Proceedings – Indian History Congress |date=2007 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |language=en |access-date=2018-09-19 |archive-date=2019-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227150154/https://books.google.com/books?id=GhVDAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live |last1=Congress |first1=Indian History}}</ref>{{full citation needed|reason=Author and contribution missing|date=April 2022}}

Scharfe adds that the best evidence is that no script was used or ever known in India, aside from the [[Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley|Persian-dominated Northwest]] where [[Aramaic]] was used, before around 300 BCE because Indian tradition "at every occasion stresses the orality of the cultural and literary heritage",<ref name="Scharfe 2002" /> yet Scharfe in the same book admits that "a script has been discovered in the excavations of the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished in the Indus valley and adjacent areas in the third millennium B.C. The number of different signs suggest a syllabic script, but all attempts at decipherment have been unsuccessful so far. Attempts by some Indian scholars to connect this undeciphered script with the Indian scripts in vogue from the third century B.C. onward are total failures."<ref>{{cite book |last=Scharfe |first=Hartmut |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies |title=Education in Ancient India |page=9 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=Leiden, Netherlands}}</ref>

====Megasthenes' observations====
[[Megasthenes]], a Greek ambassador to the Mauryan court in Northeastern India only a quarter century before [[Ashoka]], noted "...&nbsp;and this among a people who have no written laws, who are ignorant even of writing, and regulate everything by memory."<ref>{{cite book|author=Strabo|editor1-last=Hamilton|editor1-first=H. C.|editor2-last=Falconer|editor2-first=W.|title=Geography|date=1903|publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|page=15.1.53|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D53|access-date=2021-02-20|archive-date=2021-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312050008/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=1:section=53|url-status=live}}</ref> This has been variously and contentiously interpreted by many authors. [[Ludo Rocher]] almost entirely dismisses Megasthenes as unreliable, questioning the wording used by Megasthenes' informant and Megasthenes' interpretation of them.{{sfn|Rocher|2014}} Timmer considers it to reflect a misunderstanding that the Mauryans were illiterate "based upon the fact that Megasthenes rightly observed that the laws were unwritten and that oral tradition played such an important part in India."{{sfn|Timmer|1930|p=245}}

Some proponents of the indigenous origin theories{{Who|date=March 2017}} question the reliability and interpretation of comments made by Megasthenes (as quoted by [[Strabo]] in the ''[[Geographica]]'' XV.i.53). For one, the observation may only apply in the context of the kingdom of "Sandrakottos" (Chandragupta). Elsewhere in Strabo (Strab. XV.i.39), Megasthenes is said to have noted that it was a regular custom in India for the "philosopher" caste (presumably Brahmins) to submit "anything useful which they have committed to writing" to kings,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Strabo|editor1-last=Hamilton|editor1-first=H. C.|editor2-last=Falconer|editor2-first=W.|title=Geography|date=1903|publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|page=15.1.39|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D39|access-date=2021-02-20|archive-date=2021-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308152437/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=1:section=39|url-status=live}}</ref> but this detail does not appear in parallel extracts of Megasthenes found in [[Arrian]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sterling|first1=Gregory E.|title=Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephos, Luke–Acts, and Apologetic Historiography|date=1992|publisher=Brill|page=95}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=McCrindle|first1=J. W. |title=Ancient India As Described By Megasthenes And Arrian |date=1877|publisher=Trübner and Co. |location=London |pages=40, 209|url=https://archive.org/stream/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W |access-date=14 April 2015}}</ref> The implication of writing per se is also not totally clear in the original Greek as the term "[[wiktionary:σύνταξις|συντάξῃ]]" (source of the English word "[[syntax]]") can be read as a generic "composition" or "arrangement", rather than a written composition in particular. [[Nearchus]], a contemporary of [[Megasthenes]], noted, a few decades prior, the use of cotton fabric for writing in Northern India. Indologists have variously speculated that this might have been Kharoṣṭhī or the Aramaic alphabet. Salomon regards the evidence from Greek sources to be inconclusive.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|p=11}} Strabo himself notes this inconsistency regarding reports on the use of writing in India (XV.i.67).

===Debate on time depth===
[[File:Sanskrit Brhama English alphabets.jpg|thumb|right|Connections between Phoenician (4th column) and Brahmi (5th column). Note that 6th-to-4th-century BCE Aramaic (not shown) is in many cases intermediate in form between the two.]]
[[K. R. Norman|Kenneth Norman]] (2005) suggests that Brahmi was devised over a longer period of time predating Ashoka's rule:<ref name="Hinüber1989">{{cite book|author=Oskar von Hinüber|title=Der Beginn der Schrift und frühe Schriftlichkeit in Indien|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xiYTAQAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur|oclc=22195130|pages=241–245|isbn=9783515056274|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727133141/https://books.google.com/books?id=xiYTAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Support for this idea of pre-Ashokan development has been given very recently by the discovery of sherds at [[Anuradhapura]] in [[Sri Lanka]], inscribed with small numbers of characters which seem to be Brāhmī. These sherds have been dated, by both [[radiocarbon dating|Carbon 14]] and [[thermoluminescence dating|Thermo-luminescence dating]], to pre-Ashokan times, perhaps as much as two centuries before Ashoka.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth Roy Norman|title=Buddhist Forum Volume V: Philological Approach to Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qYyRAgAAQBAJ|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-75154-8|pages=67, 56–57, 65–73|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727133125/https://books.google.com/books?id=qYyRAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

However, these finds are controversial, see {{slink|Tamil Brahmi|Conflicting theories about origin since 1990s}}.

He also notes that the variations seen in the [[Edicts of Asoka|Asokan edicts]] would be unlikely to have emerged so quickly if Brahmi had a single origin in the chancelleries of the Mauryan Empire.<ref name="dow">Norman, Kenneth R. "The Development of Writing in India and its Effect upon the Pāli Canon". ''Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Südasiens'' [Vienna Journal of South Asian Studies], vol. 36, 1992, pp. 239–249. {{JSTOR|24010823}}. Accessed 11 May 2020.</ref> He suggests a date of not later than the end of the 4th century for the development of Brahmi script in the form represented in the inscriptions, with earlier possible antecedents.<ref name="dow" />

[[Jack Goody]] (1987) had similarly suggested that ancient India likely had a "very old culture of writing" along with its oral tradition of composing and transmitting knowledge, because the Vedic literature is too vast, consistent and complex to have been entirely created, memorized, accurately preserved and spread without a written system.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jack Goody |title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC |year=1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-33794-6 |pages=110–24 |access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2017-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225013254/https://books.google.com/books?id=TepXQMN6lfUC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jack |last=Goody |title=Myth, Ritual and the Oral |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5BJ_PDhpy2QC |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49303-1 |pages=42–47, 65–81 |access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224160352/https://books.google.com/books?id=5BJ_PDhpy2QC |url-status=live}}</ref>

Opinions on this point, the possibility that there may not have been any writing scripts including Brahmi during the Vedic age, given the quantity and quality of the Vedic literature, are divided. While Falk (1993) disagrees with Goody,{{Sfn|Annette Wilke|Oliver Moebus|2011|pages=182–183}} while [[Walter J. Ong|Walter Ong]] and John Hartley (2012) concur,<ref>{{cite book |first1=Walter J. |last1=Ong |first2=John |last2=Hartley |title=Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ys8gGDZQHQ4C |year=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-53837-4 |pages=64–69 |access-date=2016-10-24 |archive-date=2016-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224160827/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ys8gGDZQHQ4C |url-status=live}}</ref> not so much based on the difficulty of orally preserving the Vedic hymns, but on the basis that it is highly unlikely that Panini's grammar was composed. [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] (2002) takes the intermediate position that the oral transmission of the Vedic hymns may well have been achieved orally, but that the development of Panini's grammar presupposes writing (consistent with a development of Indian writing in c. the 4th century BCE).<ref name="bronkhorst2002lar">"Falk goes too far. It is fair to expect that we believe that Vedic memorisation – though without parallel in any other human society – has been able to preserve very long texts for many centuries without losing a syllable.... However, the oral composition of a work as complex as Pāṇini's grammar is not only without parallel in other human cultures, it is without parallel in India itself.... It just will not do to state that our difficulty in conceiving any such thing is our problem." {{cite journal|last1=Bronkhorst|first1=Johannes|title=Literacy and Rationality in Ancient India|journal=Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques|date=2002|volume=56|issue=4|pages=803–804, 797–831}}</ref>

===Origin of the name===

Several divergent accounts of the origin of the name "Brahmi" (ब्राह्मी) appear in history. The term ''Brahmi'' (बाम्भी in original) appears in Indian texts in different contexts.  According to the rules of the [[Sanskrit]] language, it is a feminine word meaning literally "of Brahma" or "the female energy of the [[Brahman]]".<ref>{{cite book|first=Arthur Anthony|last=Macdonell|title=Sanskrit English Dictionary (Practical Hand Book)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PzQxel1GueUC|year=2004|publisher=Asian Educational Services|isbn=978-81-206-1779-7|page=200|access-date=2016-10-24|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727134741/https://books.google.com/books?id=PzQxel1GueUC|url-status=live}}</ref> In popular [[Hindu]] texts such as the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', it appears in the sense of a goddess, particularly for [[Saraswati]] as the goddess of speech and elsewhere as "personified [[Shakti]] (energy) of [[Brahma]], the god of Hindu scriptures [[Veda]] and creation".<ref name="mmwbrahmi">Monier Monier Willians (1899), [http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/mw/0700/mw__0775.html ''Brahmi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225004059/http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/mw/0700/mw__0775.html |date=2021-02-25}}, Oxford University Press, page 742</ref> Later Chinese Buddhist account of the 6th century CE also supports its creation to the god [[Brahma]], though [[Monier Monier-Williams]], [[Sylvain Lévi]] and others thought it was more likely to have been given the name because it was moulded by the [[Brahmin]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levi |first=Silvain |title=The Kharostra Country and the Kharostri Writing |journal=The Indian Antiquary |date=1906 |volume=XXXV |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |access-date=2016-06-13 |archive-date=2016-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230000557/https://books.google.com/books?id=GRwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Monier Monier-Williams|title=Sanskrit-English Dictionary |year=1970|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint of Oxford Clarendon)|isbn=978-5-458-25035-1|page=xxvi with footnotes}}</ref>

Alternatively, some [[Buddhist]] sutras such as the ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra]]'' (possibly 4th century CE), list ''Brāhmī'' and ''Kharoṣṭī'' as some of the sixty-four scripts the Buddha knew as a child.<ref name="RS8">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=8–9}}</ref> Several sutras of [[Jainism]] such as the ''Vyakhya Pragyapti Sutra'', the ''Samvayanga Sutra'' and the ''Pragyapna Sutra'' of the [[Jain Agamas (Śvētāmbara)|Jain Agamas]] include a list of 18 writing scripts known to teachers before the [[Mahavira]] was born, the first one being ''Bambhi'' (बाम्भी) in the original [[Prakrit]], which has been interpreted as "Bramhi".<ref name="RS8" /> The Brahmi script is missing from the list of 18 scripts in the surviving versions of two later Jaina Sutras, namely the ''Vishesha Avashyaka'' and the ''Kalpa Sutra''. Jain legend recounts that 18 writing scripts were taught by their first Tirthankara [[Rishabhanatha]] to his daughter Bambhi (बाम्भी); she emphasized बाम्भी as the main script as she taught others, and therefore the name Brahmi for the script comes after her name.<ref name="Nagrajji 2003">{{cite book |last=Nagrajji|first=Acharya Shri|title=Āgama Aura Tripiṭaka, Eka Anuśilana: Language and literature|date=2003|publisher=Concept Publishing |location=New Delhi|pages=223–24}}</ref> There is no early epigraphic proof for the expression "Brahmi script". [[Ashoka]] himself when he created the first known inscriptions in the new script in the 3rd century BCE, used the expression ''dhaṃma [[Lipi (script)|lipi]]'' ([[Prakrit]] in the Brahmi script: [[wikt:𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺|𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺]], "Inscriptions of the [[Dharma]]") but this is not to describe the script of his own [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edicts]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-813171120-0 |page=351 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA351 |access-date=2021-03-19 |archive-date=2021-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028113419/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |url-status=live}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Dhamma inscription.jpg|thumb|The [[Prakrit]] word "''[[Dhamma|Dha-ṃ-ma]]''" ([[Dharma]]) in the Brahmi script, as inscribed by Ashoka in his Edicts. [[Topra Kalan]] pillar, now in [[New Delhi]] (3rd century BCE).]]
The earliest known full inscriptions of Brahmi are in [[Prakrit]], dated to be from the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE, particularly the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], c. 250 BCE.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=72–81}} Prakrit records predominate the epigraphic records discovered in the Indian subcontinent through about the 1st century CE.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=72–81}} The earliest known Brahmi inscriptions in [[Sanskrit]] are from the 1st century BCE, such as the few discovered in [[Ayodhya]], [[Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions|Ghosundi and Hathibada]] (both near [[Chittorgarh]]).{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=86–87}}{{refn|group=note|More numerous inscribed Sanskrit records in Brahmi have been found near [[Mathura]] and elsewhere, but these are from the 1st century CE onwards.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=87–89}}}} Ancient inscriptions have also been discovered in many North and Central Indian sites, occasionally in South India as well, that are in hybrid Sanskrit-Prakrit language called "Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit".{{refn|group=note|The archeological sites near the northern Indian city of Mathura has been one of the largest source of such ancient inscriptions. [[Andhau]] (Gujarat) and [[Nasik]] (Maharashtra) are other important sources of Brahmi inscriptions from the 1st century CE.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|p=82}}}} These are dated by modern techniques to between the 1st and 4th centuries CE.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=81–84}}{{sfn|Salomon|1996|p=377}} Surviving ancient records of the Brahmi script are found as engravings on pillars, temple walls, metal plates, terracotta, coins, crystals and manuscripts.{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=122–123, 129–131, 262–307}}{{sfn|Salomon|1996|p=377}}

One of the most important recent developments regarding the origin of Brahmi has been the discovery of Brahmi characters inscribed on fragments of pottery from the trading town of [[Anuradhapura]] in Sri Lanka, which have been dated to between the 6th and the early 4th century BCE,{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=12–13}} although these finds are controversial (see {{slink|Tamil Brahmi|Conflicting theories about origin since 1990s}}). In 1996, Coningham et al.<ref name="Coningham 1996">{{cite journal|last1=Coningham|first1=R.A.E.|last2=Allchin|first2=F.R.|last3=Batt|first3=C.M.|last4=Lucy|first4=D.|title=Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script|journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal|date=22 December 2008|volume=6|issue=1|pages=73|doi=10.1017/S0959774300001608|s2cid=161465267}}</ref> stated that the script on the Anuradhapura inscriptions is Brahmi, but stated that the language was a [[Prakrit]] rather than a [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]]. The historical sequence of the specimens was interpreted to indicate an evolution in the level of stylistic refinement over several centuries, and they concluded that the Brahmi script may have arisen out of "mercantile involvement" and that the growth of [[trade route|trade networks]] in Sri Lanka was correlated with its first appearance in the area.<ref name="Coningham 1996" /> Salomon in his 1998 review states that the Anuradhapura inscriptions support the theory that Brahmi existed in South Asia before the Mauryan times, with studies favoring the 4th century BCE, but some doubts remain whether the inscriptions might be intrusive into the potsherds from a later date.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=12–13}} Indologist Harry Falk has argued that the Edicts of Ashoka represent an older stage of Brahmi, whereas certain [[paleography|paleographic]] features of even the earliest Anuradhapura inscriptions are likely to be later, and so these potsherds may date from after 250 BCE.<ref>Falk, H. (2014). "[https://www.academia.edu/11754083/Owners_graffiti_on_pottery_from_Tissamaharama Owner's graffiti on pottery from Tissamaharama] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110235610/https://www.academia.edu/11754083/Owners_graffiti_on_pottery_from_Tissamaharama |date=2021-11-10}}", in ''Zeitchriftfür Archäeologie Aussereuropäischer Kulturen''. 6. pp.45–47.</ref>

More recently in 2013, Rajan and Yatheeskumar published excavations at Porunthal and [[Kodumanal]] in [[Tamil Nadu]], where numerous both [[Tamil-Brahmi]] and "Prakrit-Brahmi" inscriptions and fragments have been found.<ref>Rajan prefers the term "Prakrit-Brahmi" to distinguish Prakrit-language Brahmi inscriptions.</ref> Their stratigraphic analysis combined with [[radiocarbon date]]s of paddy grains and charcoal samples indicated that inscription contexts date to as far back as the 6th and perhaps 7th centuries BCE.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rajan|first1=K.|last2=Yatheeskumar|first2=V.P.|title=New evidences on scientific dates for Brāhmī Script as revealed from Porunthal and Kodumanal Excavations|journal=Prāgdhārā|date=2013|volume=21–22|pages=280–295|url=http://georgehart.net/resources/k-rajan.pmd.pdf|access-date=12 January 2016|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013210707/http://georgehart.net/resources/k-rajan.pmd.pdf|archive-date=13 October 2015}}</ref> As these were published very recently, they have as yet not been commented on extensively in the literature. Indologist Harry Falk has criticized Rajan's claims as "particularly ill-informed"; Falk argues that some of the earliest supposed inscriptions are not Brahmi letters at all, but merely misinterpreted non-linguistic [[Megalithic graffiti symbols]], which were used in South India for several centuries during the pre-literate era.<ref>Falk, H. (2014), p.46, with footnote 2</ref>

=== Calligraphic evolution (3rd century BCE – 1st century CE) ===
[[File:Brahmi script between the3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.38|{{center|1=Calligraphical evolution: 3rd century BCE calligraphy (top), and a sample of the new calligraphic style introduced by the [[Indo-Scythians]] (bottom, fragment of the [[Mirzapur stele inscription]], in the vicinity of [[Mathura]], {{circa|15 CE}}).<ref>Buddhist art of Mathurā, Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Agam, 1984 Page 26</ref><ref name="TPV" /><br> The text is ''Svāmisya Mahakṣatrapasya Śudasasya''<br>"Of the Lord and Great Satrap [[Sodasa|Śudāsa]]"<ref name="RCS">{{cite book |last1=Sharma |first1=Ramesh Chandra |title=Buddhist art of Mathurā |date=1984 |publisher=Agam |page=26 |isbn=9780391031401 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5OvVAAAAMAAJ |language=en |access-date=2022-01-26 |archive-date=2022-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126073612/https://books.google.com/books?id=5OvVAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>}}]]
The calligraphy of the Brahmi script remained virtually unchanged from the time of the [[Maurya Empire]] to the end of the 1st century BCE.<ref name="TPV">{{cite book |last1=Verma |first1=Thakur Prasad |title=The Palaeography Of Brahmi Script |date=1971 |pages=82–85 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.130329/page/n91}}</ref> Around this time, the [[Indo-Scythians]] ("[[Northern Satraps]]"), after their establishment in northern India introduced "revolutionary changes" in the way Brahmi was written.<ref name="TPV" /> In the 1st century BCE, the shape of Brahmi characters became more angular, and the vertical segments of letters were equalized, a phenomenon that is clearly visible in coin legends and that made the script visually more similar to the [[Greek script]].<ref name="TPV" /> In this new typeface, the letter were "neat and well-formed".<ref name="TPV" /> The probable introduction of ink and pen writing, with the characteristic thickenned start of each stroke generated by the usage of ink, was reproduced in the calligraphy of stone inscriptions by the creation of a triangle-shaped form at the beginning of each stroke.<ref name="TPV" />{{sfn|Salomon|1998|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC&pg=PA34 34]}} This new writing style is particularly visible in the numerous dedicatory inscriptions made in [[Mathura]], in association with devotional works of art.<ref name="TPV" /> This new calligraphy of the Brahmi script was adopted in the rest of the subcontinent of the next half century.<ref name="TPV" /> The "new-pen-style" initiated a rapid evolution of the script from the 1st century CE, with regional variations starting to emerge.<ref name="TPV" />

===Decipherment===
[[File:Classification of Brahmi characters by James Prinsep, March 1834, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Volume 3 (March1834).jpg|thumb|Classification of Brahmi characters by [[James Prinsep]] in March 1834. The structure of Brahmi (consonantal characters with vocalic "inflections") was properly identified, but the individual values of characters remained undetermined, except for four of the vocalic inflections. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Volume 3 (March 1834).<ref name="RSP">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=204–208}} Equally impressive was Prinsep's arrangement, presented in plate V of JASB 3, of the unknown alphabet, wherein he gave each of the consonantal characters, whose phonetic values were still entirely unknown, with its "five principal inflections", that is, the vowel diacritics. Not only is this table almost perfectly correct in its arrangement, but the phonetic value of the vowels is correctly identified in four out of five cases (plus anusvard); only the vowel sign for i was incorrectly interpreted as o.</ref>]]
[[File:AgathoklesCoinage.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Norwegian scholar [[Christian Lassen]] used the bilingual Greek-Brahmi coinage of [[Indo-Greek]] king [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] to correctly achieve in 1836 the first secure decipherment of several letters of the Brahmi script, which was later completed by [[James Prinsep]].<ref name="RS204" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol V 1836 |page=723 |url=https://archive.org/stream/JournalOfTheAsiaticSocietyOfBengalVolV1836/Jasb1836Full#page/n837 |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Brahmi script consonants according to James Prinsep March 1838.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Consonants of the Brahmi script, and evolution down to modern [[Devanagari]], according to [[James Prinsep]], as published in the Journal of the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]], in March 1838. All the letters are correctly deciphered, except for two missing on the right: 𑀰(ś) and 𑀱(ṣ).<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |date=1838 |publisher=Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.] |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic775asia#page/n101}}</ref> Vowels and compounds [[:File:Brahmi script vowels according to James Prinsep March 1838.jpg|here]]. All scripts derived from Brahmi are gathered under the term "[[Brahmic scripts]]".]]
Besides a few inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic (which were only discovered in the 20th century), the [[Edicts of Ashoka]] were written in the Brahmi script and sometimes in the [[Kharoshthi script]] in the northwest, which had both become extinct around the 4th century CE, and were yet undeciphered at the time the Edicts were discovered and investigated in the 19th century.{{sfn|Salomon |1998 |pp=204–206}}<ref name="RHP" />

Inscriptions of the 6th century CE in late Brahmi were already deciphered in 1785 by [[Charles Wilkins]], who published an essentially correct translation of the [[Gopika Cave Inscription]] written by the [[Maukhari]] king Anantavarman.<ref name="RS202">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=206–207}}</ref> Wilkins seems to have relied essentially on the similarities with later [[Brahmic scripts]], such as the script of the [[Pala Empire|Pala period]] and early forms of [[Devanagari]].<ref name="RS202" />

Early Brahmi, however, remained unreadable.<ref name="RS202" /> Progress resumed in 1834 with the publication of proper facsimiles of the inscriptions on the [[Allahabad pillar]] of [[Ashoka]], notably containing [[Edicts of Ashoka]] as well as inscriptions by the [[Gupta Empire]] ruler [[Samudragupta]].<ref name="RS204">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998|pp=204–208}}</ref>

[[James Prinsep]], an archaeologist, philologist, and official of the [[East India Company]], started to analyse the inscriptions and made deductions on the general characteristics of the early Brahmi script essentially relying on statistical methods.<ref name="RS204" /> This method, published in March 1834, allowed him to classify the characters found in inscriptions, and to clarify the structure of Brahmi as being composed of consonantal characters with vocalic "inflections". He was able to correctly guess four out of five vocalic inflections, but the value of consonants remained unknown.<ref name="RS204" /> Although this statistical method was modern and innovative, the actual decipherment of the script would have to wait until after the discovery of bilingual inscriptions, a few years later.<ref name="DanielsBright1996">{{cite book |last=Daniels |first=Peter T. |author-link=Peter T. Daniels |editor1=Peter T. Daniels |editor2=William Bright |title=The World's Writing Systems |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ospMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA144 |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |pages=141–159, 151 |chapter=Methods of Decipherment |quote=Brahmi: The Brahmi script of Ashokan India (SECTION 30) is another that was deciphered largely on the basis of familiar language and familiar related script—but it was made possible largely because of the industry of young James Prinsep (1799-1840), who inventoried the characters found on the immense pillars left by Ashoka and arranged them in a pattern like that used for teaching the Ethiopian abugida (FIGURE 12). Apparently, there had never been a tradition of laying out the full set of aksharas thus—or anyone, Prinsep said, with a better knowledge of Sanskrit than he had had could have read the inscriptions straight away, instead of after discovering a very minor virtual bilingual a few years later. (p. 151) |access-date=2021-03-20 |archive-date=2021-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209214228/https://books.google.com/books?id=ospMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA144 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The same year, in 1834, some attempts by Rev. J. Stevenson were made to identify intermediate early Brahmi characters from the [[Karla Caves]] ({{circa|1st century CE}}) based on their similarities with the [[Gupta script]] of the [[Samudragupta]] inscription of the [[Allahabad pillar]] (4th century CE), which had just been published, but this led to a mix of good (about 1/3) and bad guesses and did not permit proper decipherment of the Brahmi.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |date=1834 |pages=495–499|publisher=Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.] |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic334asia#page/n31}}</ref><ref name="RS204" />

The next major step towards deciphering the ancient Brahmi script of the 3rd–2nd centuries BCE was made in 1836 by Norwegian scholar [[Christian Lassen]], who used a bilingual Greek-Brahmi coin of [[Indo-Greek]] king [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] and similarities with the [[Pali]] script to correctly and securely identify several Brahmi letters.<ref name="RHP" /><ref name="RS204" /><ref name="ACXII">{{cite book |title=Four Reports Made During the Years 1862-63-64-65 by Alexander Cunningha M: 1/ by Alexander Cunningham. 1 |date=1871 |publisher=Government central Press |page=XII |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR12 |language=en |access-date=2019-05-25 |archive-date=2021-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226040713/https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR12 |url-status=live}}</ref> The matching legends on the bilingual coins of Agathocles were:

{{blockquote|Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ  /  ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ (''[[Basileus|Basileōs]] Agathokleous'', "of King [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]]")<br />
[[Brahmi]] legend:<big>𑀭𑀚𑀦𑁂  /  𑀅𑀕𑀣𑀼𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀮𑁂𑀬𑁂𑀲</big> (''Rajane Agathukleyesa'', "King Agathocles").<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol V 1836 |page=723 |url=https://archive.org/stream/JournalOfTheAsiaticSocietyOfBengalVolV1836/Jasb1836Full#page/n837 |language=en}}</ref>}}

[[James Prinsep]] was then able to complete the decipherment of the Brahmi script.<ref name="RS204" /><ref name="Asiatic Society of Bengal 1837">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/journalasiatics06benggoog |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|last=Asiatic Society of Bengal|date=1837|others=Oxford University|language=en}}</ref><ref name="RHP" /><ref name="asi.nic.in">[http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_sanchi_detail.asp More details about Buddhist monuments at Sanchi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721165126/http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_sanchi_detail.asp |date=2011-07-21}}, Archaeological Survey of India, 1989.</ref> After acknowledging Lassen's first decipherment,<ref>[[:File:Announcement of the decipherement of Brahmi letters by Lassen in the JASB in 1836.jpg|Extract of Prinsep's communication about Lassen's decipherment]] in {{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol V 1836 |date=1836 |pages=723–724 |url=https://archive.org/stream/JournalOfTheAsiaticSocietyOfBengalVolV1836/Jasb1836Full#page/n837/mode/2up |language=en}}</ref> Prinsep used a bilingual coin of Indo-Greek king [[Pantaleon]] to decipher a few more letters.<ref name="ACXII" /> James Prinsep then analysed a large number of donatory inscriptions on the reliefs in [[Sanchi]], and noted that most of them ended with the same two Brahmi characters: "𑀤𑀦𑀁". Prinsep guessed correctly that they stood for "''[[:File:Danam letters on Sanchi inscription.jpg|danam]]''", the [[Sanskrit]] word for "gift" or "donation", which permitted to further increase the number of known letters.<ref name="RS204" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Four Reports Made During the Years 1862-63-64-65 by Alexander Cunningha M: 1/ by Alexander Cunningham. 1 |date=1871 |publisher=Government central Press |page=XI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR11 |language=en |access-date=2019-05-25 |archive-date=2021-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815170004/https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR11 |url-status=live}}</ref> With the help of Ratna Pâla, a [[Sinhalese people|Singhalese]] Pali scholar and linguist, Prinsep then completed the full decipherment of the Brahmi script.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keay |first1=John |title=To cherish and conserve the early years of the archaeological survey of India |date=2011 |publisher=Archaeological Survey of India |pages=30–31 |url=https://archive.org/details/tocherishconserv00keay/page/30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Four Reports Made During the Years 1862-63-64-65 by Alexander Cunningha M: 1/ by Alexander Cunningham. 1 |date=1871 |publisher=Government central Press |page=XIII |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR13 |language=en |access-date=2019-05-25 |archive-date=2021-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602131809/https://books.google.com/books?id=x9jNVBV97kkC&pg=RA1-PR13 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Salomon |1998 |p=207}}<ref>''Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor'', [[Charles Allen (writer)|Charles Allen]], Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 2012</ref> In a series of results that he published in March 1838 Prinsep was able to translate the inscriptions on a large number of rock edicts found around India, and provide, according to [[Richard G. Salomon (professor of Asian studies)|Richard Salomon]], a "virtually perfect" rendering of the full Brahmi alphabet.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. |date=1838 |publisher=Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.] |pages=219–285 |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic775asia#page/n51}}</ref>{{sfn|Salomon |1998 |p=208}}

===Southern Brahmi===
Ashokan inscriptions are found all over India and a few regional variants have been observed. The [[Bhattiprolu alphabet]], with earliest inscriptions dating from a few decades of Ashoka's reign, is believed to have evolved from a southern variant of the Brahmi alphabet. The language used in these inscriptions, nearly all of which have been found upon Buddhist relics, is exclusively Prakrit, though [[Kannada script|Kannada]] and Telugu proper names have been identified in some inscriptions. Twenty-three letters have been identified. The letters ''ga'' and ''sa'' are similar to Mauryan Brahmi, while ''bha'' and ''da'' resemble those of modern [[Kannada script|Kannada]] and [[Telugu script]].

[[Tamil-Brahmi]] is a variant of the Brahmi alphabet that was in use in South India by about the 3rd century BCE, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Inscriptions attest their use in parts of Sri Lanka in the same period. The language used in around 70 Southern Brahmi inscriptions discovered in the 20th century have been identified as a Prakrit language.<ref name="mahadevan">{{cite book|author=Iravatham Mahadevan|title=Early Tamil Epigraphy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZBkAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies|isbn=978-0-674-01227-1|pages=91–94|access-date=2018-10-27|archive-date=2019-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211084615/https://books.google.com/books?id=DZBkAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}; {{cite book|author=Iravatham Mahadevan|title=Tamil-Brahmi Inscriptions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MuMZAAAAIAAJ|year=1970|publisher=State Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu|pages=1–12|access-date=2018-10-27|archive-date=2021-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104042608/https://books.google.com/books?id=MuMZAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="spuler1975">{{cite book|author=Bertold Spuler|title=Handbook of Oriental Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx4uqyts2t4C&pg=PA44|year=1975|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=90-04-04190-7|page=44|access-date=2018-10-27|archive-date=2021-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104042608/https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx4uqyts2t4C&pg=PA44|url-status=live}}</ref>

In English, the most widely available set of reproductions of Brahmi texts found in Sri Lanka is ''Epigraphia Zeylanica''; in volume&nbsp;1 (1976), many of the inscriptions are dated to the 3rd–2nd century BCE.<ref>Epigraphia Zeylanica: 1904–1912, Volume&nbsp;1.  Government of Sri Lanka, 1976.  http://www.royalasiaticsociety.lk/inscriptions/?q=node/12 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826230648/http://www.royalasiaticsociety.lk/inscriptions/?q=node%2F12 |date=2016-08-26}}</ref>

Unlike the edicts of Ashoka, however, the majority of the inscriptions from this early period in Sri Lanka are found above caves. The language of Sri Lanka Brahmi inscriptions has been mostly been Prakrit though some [[Tamil-Brahmi]] inscriptions have also been found, such as the [[Annaicoddai seal]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Raghupathy |first=Ponnambalam |title=Early settlements in Jaffna, an archaeological survey |url=http://www.noolaham.org/wiki/index.php?title=Early_Settlements_in_Jaffna&uselang=en |publisher=Raghupathy |year=1987 |location=Madras |access-date=2015-07-19 |archive-date=2012-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611034232/http://www.noolaham.org/wiki/index.php?title=Early_Settlements_in_Jaffna |url-status=live}}</ref> The earliest widely accepted examples of writing in Brahmi are found in [[Anuradhapura]], [[Sri Lanka]].<ref name="Coningham 1996" />

===Red Sea and Southeast Asia===
The Khuan Luk Pat inscription discovered in [[Thailand]] is in Tamil Brahmi script. Its date is uncertain; the first century CE has been proposed.<ref>{{cite book|author=P Shanmugam|editor=Hermann Kulke|display-editors=et al|title=Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2swhCXJVRzwC&pg=PA208|year=2009|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-981-230-937-2|page=208|access-date=2018-10-27|archive-date=2021-12-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202164519/https://books.google.com/books?id=2swhCXJVRzwC&pg=PA208|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cobb2018" /> According to Frederick Asher, Tamil Brahmi inscriptions on potsherds have been found in Quseir al-Qadim and in Berenike, [[Egypt]], which suggest that merchant and trade activity was flourishing in ancient times between India and the Red Sea region.<ref name="Cobb2018" /> Additional Tamil Brahmi inscription has been found in Khor Rori region of [[Oman]] on an archaeological site storage jar.<ref name="Cobb2018">{{cite book|author=Frederick Asher|editor=Matthew Adam Cobb|title=The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity: Political, Cultural and Economic Impacts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPJNtAEACAAJ|year=2018|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|isbn=978-1-138-73826-3|page=158|access-date=2018-10-27|archive-date=2021-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014160629/https://books.google.com/books?id=bPJNtAEACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Characteristics==
Brahmi is usually written from left to right, as in the case of its descendants. However, an early coin found in [[Eran]] is inscribed with Brahmi running from right to left, as in Aramaic. Several other instances of variation in the writing direction are known, though directional instability is fairly common in ancient writing systems.{{sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=27–28}}
[[File:Shukla Brahmi.svg|thumb|center|The word ''Brā-hmī'' in modern Brahmi font]]

===Consonants===
Brahmi is an [[abugida]], meaning that each letter represents a consonant, while vowels are written with obligatory [[diacritic]]s called ''mātrā''s in Sanskrit, except when the vowels begin a word. When no vowel is written, the vowel {{IPA|/a/}} is understood. This "default short a" is a characteristic shared with Kharosthī, though the treatment of vowels differs in other respects. 
[[File:Brahmi consonants.jpg|thumb|center|upright=4|Brahmi consonants.]]

===Conjunct consonants===
{{see also|Conjunct consonant}}
[[File:ब्राम्हि जोडाक्षरे.jpg|thumb|Some major conjunct consonants in the Brahmi script.]]
Special [[conjunct consonant]]s are used to write [[consonant cluster]]s such as {{IPA|/pr/}} or {{IPA|/rv/}}. In modern Devanagari the components of a conjunct are written left to right when possible (when the first consonant has a vertical stem that can be removed at the right), whereas in Brahmi characters are joined vertically downwards.
<gallery>
File:Brahmi Kya (Ka-Ya) conjunct consonant.jpg|Kya (vertical assembly of consonants "Ka" [[File:Brahmi k.svg|12px]] and "Ya" [[File:Brahmi y.svg|12px]]), as in "[[Shakyas|Sa-kya]]-[[Muni (Saint)|mu-nī]] " ( [[wikt:𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻]], "Sage of the [[Shakyas]]")
File:Brahmi Sva (Sa+Va).jpg|Sva (Sa+Va)
File:Brahmi Sya (Sa+Ya).jpg|Sya (Sa+Ya)
File:Brahmi Hmii (Ha+Ma+i+i).jpg|Hmī (Ha+Ma+i+i), as in the word "Brāhmī" (𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻).
</gallery>

===Vowels===
[[File:Brahmi diacritic vowels.jpg|thumb|Brahmi diacritic vowels.]]
[[Image:Brahmika.svg|thumb|The Brahmi symbol for /ka/, modified to represent different vowels]]
Vowels following a consonant are inherent or written by diacritics, but initial vowels have dedicated letters. There are three "primary" vowels in Ashokan Brahmi, which each occur in length-contrasted forms: /a/, /i/, /u/; [[vowel length|long vowels]] are derived from the letters for short vowels. There are also four "secondary" vowels that do not have the long-short contrast, /e:/, /ai/, /o:/, /au/.{{sfn|Salomon|1996|pp=373–4}} Note though that the grapheme for /ai/ is derivative from /e/ in a way that parallels the short-long contrast of the primary vowels (historically they were /ai/ and /a:i/). However, there are only nine distinct vowel diacritics, as short {{IPA|/a/}} is understood if no vowel is written. The initial vowel symbol for /au/ is also apparently lacking in the earliest attested phases, even though it has a diacritic. Ancient sources suggest that there were either 11 or 12 vowels enumerated at the beginning of the character list around the Ashokan era, probably adding either ''aṃ'' or ''aḥ''.{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=32}} Later versions of Brahmi add vowels for four syllabic liquids, short and long /ṛ/ and /ḷ/. Chinese sources indicate that these were later inventions by either [[Nagarjuna]] or Śarvavarman, a minister of King [[Hāla]].{{sfn|Bühler|1898|p=33}}

It has been noted that the basic system of vowel marking common to Brahmi and Kharosthī, in which every consonant is understood to be followed by a vowel, was well suited to Prakrit,<ref name="Daniels 2008">{{cite book |chapter=Writing systems of major and minor languages |title=Language in South Asia |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last=Daniels |first=Peter T. |page=287}}</ref> but as Brahmi was adapted to other languages, a special notation called the ''[[virāma]]'' was introduced to indicate the omission of the final vowel. Kharoṣṭhī also differs in that the initial vowel representation has a single generic vowel symbol that is differentiated by diacritics, and long vowels are not distinguished.

The [[collation]] order of Brahmi is believed to have been the same as most of its descendant scripts, one based on [[Shiksha]], the traditional Vedic theory of Sanskrit phonology. This begins the list of characters with the initial vowels (starting with ''a''), then lists a subset of the consonants in five phonetically related groups of five called ''vargas'', and ends with four liquids, three sibilants, and a spirant. [[Thomas Trautmann]] attributes much of the popularity of the Brahmic script family to this "splendidly reasoned" system of arrangement.{{sfn|Trautmann|2006|p=62–64}}
{{Brahmi vowel compounds}}

===Punctuation===
[[File:Vidisha ivory carvers inscription in Sanchi.jpg|thumb|upright=2|A 1st century BCE/CE inscription from [[Sanchi]]: ''"Vedisakehi daṃtakārehi rupakaṃmaṃ kataṃ"'' ({{Script|Brah|𑀯𑁂𑀤𑀺𑀲𑀓𑁂𑀳𑀺 𑀤𑀁𑀢𑀓𑀸𑀭𑁂𑀳𑀺 𑀭𑀼𑀧𑀓𑀁𑀫𑀁 𑀓𑀢𑀁}}, "Ivory workers from [[Vidisha]] have done the carving").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chakrabarti |first1=Manika |title=Mālwa in Post-Maurya Period: A Critical Study with Special Emphasis on Numismatic Evidences |date=1981 |publisher=Punthi Pustak |page=100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jba1AAAAIAAJ |language=en |access-date=2018-10-01 |archive-date=2021-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210708070125/https://books.google.com/books?id=jba1AAAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>]] Punctuation<ref>Ram Sharma, ''Brāhmī Script: Development in North-Western India and Central Asia'', 2002</ref> can be perceived as more of an exception than as a general rule in Asokan Brahmi. For instance, distinct spaces in between the words appear frequently in the pillar edicts but not so much in others. ("Pillar edicts" refers to the texts that are inscribed on the stone pillars oftentimes with the intention of making them public.)  The idea of writing each word separately was not consistently used.

In the early Brahmi period, the existence of punctuation marks is not very well shown. Each letter has been written independently with some occasional space between words and longer sections.

In the middle period, the system seems to be developing. The use of a dash and a curved horizontal line is found. A lotus (flower) mark seems to mark the end, and a circular mark appears to indicate the full stop. There seem to be varieties of full stop.

In the late period, the system of interpunctuation marks gets more complicated. For instance, there are four different forms of vertically slanted double dashes that resemble " //" to mark the completion of the composition. Despite all the decorative signs that were available during the late period, the signs remained fairly simple in the inscriptions. One of the possible reasons may be that engraving is restricted while writing is not.

Baums identifies seven different punctuation marks needed for computer representation of Brahmi:<ref>{{cite book|author1=Stefan Baums|chapter=Towards a computer encoding for Brahmi|editor1-last=Gail|editor1-first=A.J.|editor2-last=Mevissen|editor2-first=G.J.R.|editor3-last=Saloman|editor3-first=R.|title=Script and Image: Papers on Art and Epigraphy|date=2006|publisher=Shri Jainendra Press|location=New Delhi|pages=111–143}}</ref>
* single (𑁇) and double (𑁈) vertical bar ([[danda]]) – delimiting clauses and verses
* dot (𑁉), double dot (𑁊), and horizontal line (𑁋) – delimiting shorter textual units
* crescent (𑁌) and lotus (𑁍) – delimiting larger textual units

==Evolution of the Brahmi script==
Brahmi is generally classified in three main types, which represent three main historical stages of its evolution over nearly a millennium:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=9788131711200 |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA43 |language=en |access-date=2019-08-19 |archive-date=2021-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028113419/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |url-status=live}}</ref>
* Early Brahmi represented in the Ashokan script. (3rd–1st century BCE)
* Middle Brahmi also known as "[[Kushana]] Brahmi" (1st–3rd centuries CE)
* Late Brahmi represented in the [[Gupta script]] (4th–6th centuries CE)
{{Brahmi evolution}}
{{anchor|Ashoka Brahmi}}

==Early Brahmi or "Ashokan Brahmi" (3rd–1st century BCE)==
Early "Ashokan" Brahmi (3rd–1st century BCE) is regular and geometric, and organized in a very rational fashion<!-- this is an opinion -->:

===Independent vowels===
[[File:Brahmi diacritic vowels.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Early Brahmi vowel diacritics.]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
!''Mātrā''
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
!''Mātrā''
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀅}}
|{{IAST|a}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ɐ/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓}}
|{{IAST|ka}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kɐ/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀆}}
|{{IAST|ā}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/aː/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑀸}}
|{{IAST|kā}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kaː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀇}}
|{{IAST|i}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/i/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑀺}}
|{{IAST|ki}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ki/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀈}}
|{{IAST|ī}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/iː/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑀻}}
|{{IAST|kī}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kiː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀉}}
|{{IAST|u}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/u/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑀼}}
|{{IAST|ku}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ku/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀊}}
|{{IAST|ū}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/uː/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑀽}}
|{{IAST|kū}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kuː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀏}}
|{{IAST|e}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/eː/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑁂}}
|{{IAST|ke}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/keː/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀐}}
|{{IAST|ai}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ɐi/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑁃}}
|{{IAST|kai}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kɐi/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀑}}
|{{IAST|o}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/oː/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑁄}}
|{{IAST|ko}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/koː/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀒}}
|{{IAST|au}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ɐu/}}
| style="background:#eee; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓𑁅}}
|{{IAST|kau}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/kɐu/}}
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:95%"
!
! colspan="8" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
! colspan="4" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|Voicing]] →
| colspan="4" |Voiceless
| colspan="8" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
| colspan="2" |Voiceless
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
|-
![[Aspiration (phonetics)|Aspiration]] →
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="4" |No
| colspan="4" style="background:beige;" |Yes
|-
![[Velar consonants|Velar]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀓}}
|{{IAST|ka}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/k/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀔}}
|{{IAST|kha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/kʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀕}}
|{{IAST|ga}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɡ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀖}}
|{{IAST|gha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɡʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀗}}
|{{IAST|ṅa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ŋ/}}}}
| colspan="4" |
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀳}}
|{{IAST|ha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɦ/}}}}
|-
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀘}}
|{{IAST|ca}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/c/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀙}}
|{{IAST|cha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/cʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀚}}
|{{IAST|ja}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀛}}
|{{IAST|jha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀜}}
|{{IAST|ña}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɲ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀬}}
|{{IAST|ya}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/j/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀰}}
|{{IAST|śa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɕ/}}}}
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" |
|-
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀝}}
|{{IAST|ṭa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀞}}
|{{IAST|ṭha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀟}}
|{{IAST|ḍa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀠}}
|{{IAST|ḍha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀡}}
|{{IAST|ṇa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɳ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀭}}
|{{IAST|ra}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/r/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀱}}
|{{IAST|ṣa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʂ/}}}}
|-
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀢}}
|{{IAST|ta}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀣}}
|{{IAST|tha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪ʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀤}}
|{{IAST|da}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀥}}
|{{IAST|dha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪ʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀦}}
|{{IAST|na}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/n/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀮}}
|{{IAST|la}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/l/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀲}}
|{{IAST|sa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/s/}}}}
|-
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀧}}
|{{IAST|pa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/p/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀨}}
|{{IAST|pha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/pʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀩}}
|{{IAST|ba}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/b/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀪}}
|{{IAST|bha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/bʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀫}}
|{{IAST|ma}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/m/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀯}}
|{{IAST|va}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/w, ʋ/}}}}
| colspan="2" |
|}
The final letter does not fit into the table above; it is {{script|Brah|𑀴}} {{IAST|ḷa}}.

===Some famous inscriptions in the Early Brahmi script===
{{see also|Early Indian epigraphy}}
The Brahmi script was the medium for some of the most famous inscriptions of ancient India, starting with the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], {{Circa|250 BCE}}.

====Birthplace of the historical Buddha====
{{main|Lumbini pillar inscription}}
In a particularly famous Edict, the Rummindei Edict in [[Lumbini]], [[Nepal]], Ashoka describes his visit in the 21st year of his reign, and designates Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha. He also, for the first time in historical records, uses the epithet "Sakyamuni" (Sage of the [[Shakyas]]), to describe the Buddha.<ref name="Hultzsch p164">{{cite book |last=Hultzsch |first=E. |year=1925 |url=https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch |title=Inscriptions of Asoka |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |pages=164–165}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Rummindei pillar, inscription of Ashoka ({{Circa|248 BCE}})
|-
! Translation<br /><small>(English)</small>!!Transliteration<br /><small>(original Brahmi script)</small>!!Inscription<br /><small>([[Prakrit]] in the Brahmi script)</small>
|-
| width="30%"|
When King Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty years, he came himself and worshipped (this spot) because the [[Buddha Shakyamuni]] was born here. (He) both caused to be made a stone bearing a horse (?) and caused a stone pillar to be set up, (in order to show) that the Blessed One was born here. (He) made the village of Lummini free of taxes, and paying (only) an eighth share (of the produce).

— The [[Rummindei]] Edict, one of the [[Minor Pillar Edicts]] of Ashoka.<ref name="Hultzsch p164" />
| style="text-align:left" |
<poem><big>{{Script|Brah|[[Devanampriya|𑀤𑁂𑀯𑀸𑀦𑀁𑀧𑀺𑀬𑁂]]𑀦 [[Priyadasi|𑀧𑀺𑀬𑀤𑀲𑀺]]𑀦 [[Raja|𑀮𑀸𑀚𑀺]]𑀦𑀯𑀻𑀲𑀢𑀺𑀯𑀲𑀸𑀪𑀺𑀲𑀺𑀢𑁂𑀦}}</big>
<small>Devānaṃpiyena Piyadasina lājina vīsati-vasābhisitena</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀅𑀢𑀦𑀆𑀕𑀸𑀘 𑀫𑀳𑀻𑀬𑀺𑀢𑁂 𑀳𑀺𑀤[[Buddha|𑀩𑀼𑀥𑁂]]𑀚𑀸𑀢 [[Sakyamuni|𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀺]]𑀢𑀺}}</big>
<small>atana āgāca mahīyite hida Budhe jāte Sakyamuni ti</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸𑀯𑀺𑀕𑀥𑀪𑀺𑀘𑀸𑀓𑀸𑀳𑀸𑀧𑀺𑀢 𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸𑀣𑀪𑁂𑀘 𑀉𑀲𑀧𑀸𑀧𑀺𑀢𑁂}}</big>
<small>silā vigaḍabhī cā kālāpita silā-thabhe ca usapāpite</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀳𑀺𑀤[[Bhagavan|𑀪𑀕𑀯𑀁]]𑀚𑀸𑀢𑀢𑀺 [[Lumbini|𑀮𑀼𑀁𑀫𑀺𑀦𑀺]]𑀕𑀸𑀫𑁂 𑀉𑀩𑀮𑀺𑀓𑁂𑀓𑀝𑁂}}</big>
<small>hida Bhagavaṃ jāte ti Luṃmini-gāme ubalike kaṭe</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀅𑀞𑀪𑀸𑀕𑀺𑀬𑁂𑀘}}</big>
<small>aṭha-bhāgiye ca</small></poem>

— Adapted from transliteration by [[E. Hultzsch]]<ref name="Hultzsch p164" />
|style="text-align:center" width="10%"|
[[File:Lumbini inscription (complete).jpg|thumb|300px|The Rummindei pillar edict in [[Lumbini]].]]
|}

====Heliodorus Pillar inscription====
The [[Heliodorus pillar]] is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India<ref>{{cite book|last1=Avari|first1=Burjor|title=India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Subcontinent from c. 7000 BCE to CE 1200|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317236733|page=167|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167|language=en|access-date=2018-10-09|archive-date=2020-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522034016/https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167|url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Vidisha]] near modern [[Besnagar]], by [[Heliodorus (votive erector)|Heliodorus]], an ambassador of the [[Indo-Greek]] king [[Antialcidas]] in [[Taxila]]<ref name="SW" /> to the court of the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga]] king [[Bhagabhadra]]. Historically, it is one of the earliest known inscriptions related to the [[Vaishnavism]] in India.<ref name="Bopearachchi">[[Osmund Bopearachchi]], 2016, [https://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Vi%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87u_and_%C5%9Aiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence Emergence of Viṣṇu and Śiva Images in India: Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123154459/http://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Vi%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87u_and_%C5%9Aiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence |date=2017-11-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Burjor Avari|title=India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Subcontinent from C. 7000 BCE to CE 1200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-23673-3|pages=165–167|access-date=2018-10-09|archive-date=2019-12-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229140620/https://books.google.com/books?id=WTaTDAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Romila Thapar|title=Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC&pg=PA216|year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24225-8|pages=216–217|access-date=2018-10-09|archive-date=2020-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727132714/https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC&pg=PA216|url-status=live}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Heliodorus pillar inscription ({{circa|113 BCE}})
|-
! Translation<br /><small>(English)</small>!!Transliteration<br /><small>(original Brahmi script)</small>!!Inscription<br /><small>([[Prakrit]] in the Brahmi script)</small><ref name="SW" />
|-
| width="30%"|
<poem>This [[Garuda]]-standard of [[Vāsudeva]], the God of Gods
was erected here by the devotee [[Heliodorus (ambassador)|Heliodoros]],
the son of Dion, a man of [[Taxila]],
sent by the Great [[Yona]] King [[Antialcidas|Antialkidas]], as ambassador
to King Kasiputra [[Bhagabhadra]], 
the Savior son of the princess from [[Varanasi]], 
in the fourteenth year of his reign.<ref>Archaeological Survey of India, Annual report 1908–1909 [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.207532/2015.207532.Annual-Reports p.129]</ref></poem>

<poem>
Three immortal precepts (footsteps)... when practiced
lead to heaven: [[Temperance (virtue)#Hinduism|self-restraint]], charity, consciousness</poem>
| style="text-align:left" |
<poem><big>{{Script|Brah|𑀤𑁂𑀯𑀤𑁂𑀯𑀲 𑀯𑀸(𑀲𑀼𑀤𑁂)𑀯𑀲 𑀕𑀭𑀼𑀟𑀥𑁆𑀯𑀚𑁄 𑀅𑀬𑀁}}</big>
<small>Devadevasa Vā[sude]vasa Garuḍadhvaje ayaṃ</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀓𑀭𑀺𑀢𑁄 𑀇(𑀅) 𑀳𑁂𑀮𑀺𑀉𑁄𑀤𑁄𑀭𑁂𑀡 𑀪𑀸𑀕}}</big>
<small>karito i[a] Heliodoreṇa bhāga-</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀯𑀢𑁂𑀦 𑀤𑀺𑀬𑀲 𑀧𑀼𑀢𑁆𑀭𑁂𑀡 𑀢𑀔𑁆𑀔𑀲𑀺𑀮𑀸𑀓𑁂𑀦}}</big>
<small>vatena Diyasa putreṇa Takhkhasilākena</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀬𑁄𑀦𑀤𑀢𑁂𑀦 𑀅𑀕𑀢𑁂𑀦 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀭𑀸𑀚𑀲}}</big>
<small>Yonadatena agatena mahārājasa</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀅𑀁𑀢𑀮𑀺𑀓𑀺𑀢𑀲 𑀉𑀧𑀁𑀢𑀸 𑀲𑀁𑀓𑀸𑀲𑀁𑀭𑀜𑁄}}</big>
<small>Aṃtalikitasa upa[ṃ]tā samkāsam-raño</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀓𑀸𑀲𑀻𑀧𑀼𑀢𑁆𑀭𑀲 𑀪𑀸𑀕𑀪𑀤𑁆𑀭𑀲 𑀢𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀢𑀸𑀭𑀲}}</big>
<small>Kāsīput[r]asa [Bh]āgabhadrasa trātārasa</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀯𑀲𑁂𑀦 (𑀘𑀢𑀼)𑀤𑀲𑁂𑀁𑀦 𑀭𑀸𑀚𑁂𑀦 𑀯𑀥𑀫𑀸𑀦𑀲}}</big>
<small>vasena [catu]daseṃna rājena vadhamānasa</small>

<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀢𑁆𑀭𑀺𑀦𑀺 𑀅𑀫𑀼𑀢𑁋𑀧𑀸𑀤𑀸𑀦𑀺 (𑀇𑀫𑁂) (𑀲𑀼)𑀅𑀦𑀼𑀣𑀺𑀢𑀸𑀦𑀺}}</big>
<small>Trini amuta𑁋pādāni (i me) (su)anuthitāni</small>
<big>{{Script|Brah|𑀦𑁂𑀬𑀁𑀢𑀺 𑀲𑁆𑀯(𑀕𑀁) 𑀤𑀫 𑀘𑀸𑀕 𑀅𑀧𑁆𑀭𑀫𑀸𑀤}}</big>
<small>neyamti sva(gam) dama cāga apramāda</small></poem>

— Adapted from transliterations by [[E. J. Rapson]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rapson |first1=E. J. |title=Ancient India |date=1914 |page=157 |url=https://archive.org/details/RapsonAncientIndia1914pdf/page/n183}}</ref> Sukthankar,<ref name="VSS">Sukthankar, Vishnu Sitaram, V. S. Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Vol. II: Analecta, Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House 1945 [http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil_elib/Suk9442__Sukthankar_MemorialEd_2_Analecta_1945.pdf p.266] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024062454/http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil_elib/Suk9442__Sukthankar_MemorialEd_2_Analecta_1945.pdf |date=2020-10-24}}</ref> [[Richard G. Salomon (professor of Asian studies)|Richard Salomon]],<ref name="RS265">{{harvnb|Salomon|1998||pp=265–267}}</ref> and Shane Wallace.<ref name="SW">[https://www.academia.edu/25638818 Greek Culture in Afghanistan and India: Old Evidence and New Discoveries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815170004/https://www.academia.edu/25638818 |date=2021-08-15}} Shane Wallace, 2016, p.222-223</ref>
|style="text-align:center" width="10%"|
[[File:Heliodorus pillar Rapson rubbing inverted.jpg|thumb|300px|Heliodorus pillar rubbing (inverted colors). The text is in the Brahmi script of the [[Sunga Empire|Sunga period]].<ref name="RS265" /> For a [https://kevinstandagephotography.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/heliodorus-pillar-column-vidisha/ recent photograph].]]
|}

==Middle Brahmi or "Kushana Brahmi" (1st–3rd centuries CE)==
Middle Brahmi or "[[Kushana]] Brahmi" was in use from the 1st–3rd centuries CE. It is more rounded than its predecessor, and introduces some significant variations in shapes. Several characters (r̩ and l̩), classified as vowels, were added during the "Middle Brahmi" period between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, in order to accommodate the transcription of [[Sanskrit]]:<ref>{{cite book |title=Brahmi Unicode |pages=4–6 |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03249r-brahmi-proposal.pdf |access-date=2019-08-18 |archive-date=2021-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203164930/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03249r-brahmi-proposal.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[:File:Brahmi script vowels according to James Prinsep March 1838.jpg|James Prinsep table of vowels]]</ref>

===Independent vowels===
[[File:Middle Brahmi vowel diacritics.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Middle Brahmi vowel diacritics]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka a.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|a}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ə/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka aa.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ā}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/aː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka i.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|i}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/i/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ī}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/iː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka u.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|u}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/u/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ū}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/uː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka e.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|e}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/eː/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka o.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|o}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/oː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ai}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/əi/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka au.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|au}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/əu/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀋}}
|{{IAST|ṛ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/r̩/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀌}}
|{{IAST|ṝ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/r̩ː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀍}}
|{{IAST|l̩}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/l̩/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀎}}
|{{IAST|ḹ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/l̩ː/}}
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:95%"
!
! colspan="8" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
! colspan="4" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|Voicing]] →
| colspan="4" |Voiceless
| colspan="8" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
| colspan="2" |Voiceless
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
|-
![[Aspiration (phonetics)|Aspiration]] →
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="4" |No
| colspan="4" style="background:beige;" |Yes
|-
![[Velar consonants|Velar]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka k.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ka}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/k/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka kh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|kha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/kʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka g.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ga}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/g/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka gh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|gha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɡʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka ng.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṅa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ŋ/}}}}
| colspan="4" |
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka h.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɦ/}}}}
|-
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka c.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ca}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/c/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka ch.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|cha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/cʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka j.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ja}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka jh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|jha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka ny.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ña}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɲ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka y.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ya}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/j/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka sh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|śa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɕ/}}}}
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" |
|-
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka tt.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṭa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka tth.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṭha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka dd.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ḍa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka ddh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ḍha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka nn.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṇa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɳ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka r.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ra}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/r/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka ss.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṣa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʂ/}}}}
|-
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka t.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ta}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka th.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|tha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪ʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka d.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|da}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka dh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|dha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪ʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka n.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|na}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/n/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka l.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|la}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/l/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka s.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|sa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/s/}}}}
|-
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka p.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|pa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/p/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta gujarat ph.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|pha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/pʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka b.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ba}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/b/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka bh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|bha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/bʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka m.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ma}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/m/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka v.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|va}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/w, ʋ/}}}}
| colspan="2" |
|}

===Examples===
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Coinage of Chastana with obverse Brahmi legend.jpg|Early/Middle Brahmi legend on the coinage of [[Chastana]]:  RAJNO MAHAKSHATRAPASA GHSAMOTIKAPUTRASA CHASHTANASA "Of the Rajah, the Great Satrap, son of Ghsamotika, Chashtana". 1st–2nd century CE.<ref>{{cite book |title=Seaby's Coin and Medal Bulletin: July 1980 |date=1980 |publisher=Seaby Publications Ltd. |page=219 |url=https://archive.org/details/seabyscoinmedalb1980base_r0l5/page/218}}</ref>
File:Shastana inscription.jpg|Inscribed [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] statue of [[Western Satraps]] King [[Chastana]], with inscription "Shastana" in Middle Brahmi script of the Kushan period ([[File:Gupta ashoka ss.svg|10px]]<sub>[[File:Gupta ashoka sta.jpg|13px]]</sub>[[File:Gupta ashoka n.svg|10px]] ''Ṣa-sta-na'').<ref name="JBO">"The three letters give us a complete name, which I read as Ṣastana (vide facsimile and cast). Dr. Vogel read it as Mastana but that is incorrect for Ma was always written with a circular or triangular knob below with two slanting lines joining the knob" in {{cite book |title=Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society |date=1920 |publisher=The Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKZEAQAAMAAJ |language=en |access-date=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2020-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227171742/https://books.google.com/books?id=yKZEAQAAMAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref><br />Here, ''sta'' [[File:Gupta ashoka sta.jpg|13px]] is the [[conjunct consonant]] of ''sa'' [[File:Gupta ashoka s.svg|10px]] and ''ta'' [[File:Gupta ashoka t.svg|10px]], vertically combined. Circa 100 CE.
File:Mahakhatapa.jpg|The rulers of the [[Western Satraps]] were called ''Mahākhatapa'' ("Great Satrap") in their Brahmi script inscriptions, as here in a dedicatory inscription by Prime Minister Ayama in the name of his ruler [[Nahapana]], [[Manmodi Caves]], {{circa|100 CE}}.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burgess|first1=Jas|title=Archaeological Survey Of Western India|date=1883|page=103|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.35775}}</ref>
File:Nasik Cave inscription No 10.jpg|[[Nasik Caves|Nasik Cave]] inscription No.10. of [[Nahapana]], Cave No.10.
</gallery>

==Late Brahmi or "Gupta Brahmi" (4th–6th centuries CE)==
{{main|Gupta script}}
{{see also|Gupta Empire}}

===Independent vowels===
{{multiple image
| align=right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Late Brahmi vowel diacritics
| total_width=500
| image1   = Gupta script diacritics.jpg
| caption1 = Gupta script vowel diacritics ([[Allahabad pillar|Allahabad]] standard).<ref name="DBS">{{cite book |title=Das Buch der Schrift: Enthaltend die Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller ... |date=1880 |publisher=K. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei |page=126 |url=https://archive.org/details/dasbuchderschri01faulgoog/page/n142 |language=de}}</ref><ref name="GU">{{cite web |title=Gupta Unicode |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03249r-brahmi-proposal.pdf |access-date=2019-08-18 |archive-date=2021-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203164930/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03249r-brahmi-proposal.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>
| image2   = Gupta diacritics and compounds.jpg
| caption2 = Usage examples.<ref name="DBS" /><ref name="GU" />
| footer=
}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
!Letter
!IAST and<br />Sanskrit IPA
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad a.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|a}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/ə/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad aa.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ā}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/aː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad i.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|i}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/i/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ī}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/iː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad u.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|u}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/u/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ū}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/uː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad e.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|e}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/eː/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad o.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|o}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/oː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |
|{{IAST|ai}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/əi/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad au.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|au}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/əu/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀋}}
|{{IAST|ṛ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/r̩/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀌}}
|{{IAST|ṝ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/r̩ː/}}
|-
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀍}}
|{{IAST|l̩}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/l̩/}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |{{script|Brah|𑀎}}
|{{IAST|ḹ}}&nbsp;{{IPA|/l̩ː/}}
|}

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:95%"
!
! colspan="8" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
! colspan="4" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|Voicing]] →
| colspan="4" |Voiceless
| colspan="8" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
| colspan="2" |Voiceless
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Voiced
|-
![[Aspiration (phonetics)|Aspiration]] →
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="2" |No
| colspan="2" style="background:beige;" |Yes
| colspan="4" |No
| colspan="4" style="background:beige;" |Yes
|-
![[Velar consonants|Velar]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad k.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ka}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/k/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad kh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|kha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/kʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad g.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ga}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/g/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad gh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|gha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɡʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ng.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṅa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ŋ/}}}}
| colspan="4" |
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad h.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɦ/}}}}
|-
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad c.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ca}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/c/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ch.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|cha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/cʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad j.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ja}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta ashoka jh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|jha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɟʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ny.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ña}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɲ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad y.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ya}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/j/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad sh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|śa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɕ/}}}}
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" |
|-
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad tt.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṭa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad tth.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṭha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʈʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad dd.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ḍa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ddh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ḍha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɖʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad nn.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṇa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ɳ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad r.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ra}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/r/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ss.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ṣa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/ʂ/}}}}
|-
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad t.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ta}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad th.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|tha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/t̪ʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad d.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|da}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad dh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|dha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/d̪ʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad n.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|na}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/n/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad l.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|la}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/l/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad s.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|sa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/s/}}}}
|-
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad p.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|pa}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/p/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad ph.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|pha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/pʰ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad b.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ba}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/b/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad bh.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|bha}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/bʱ/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad m.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|ma}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/m/}}}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;" |[[File:Gupta allahabad v.svg|24px]]
|{{IAST|va}}&nbsp;{{nowrap|{{IPA|/w, ʋ/}}}}
| colspan="2" |
|}

===Examples===
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Kanheri-brahmi.jpg|[[Gupta script]] on stone [[Kanheri Caves]], one of the earliest descendants of Brahmi
File:Barabar Caves Gopika Cave Inscription of Anantavarman 5th- or 6th-century CE Sanskrit in Gupta script.jpg|The [[Gopika Cave Inscription]] of Anantavarman, in the [[Sanskrit]] language and using the Gupta script. [[Barabar Caves]], [[Bihar]],  or 6th century CE.
File:Mihirakula of the Alchon Huns.jpg|Coin of [[Alchon Huns]] ruler [[Mihirakula]]. Obv: Bust of king, with legend in [[Gupta script]] ([[File:Gupta_allahabad_j.svg|12px]])[[File:Gupta_allahabad_y.svg|12px]][[File:Gupta_allahabad_tu.jpg|12px]]<sup>[[File:Gupta_allahabad_mi.jpg|12px]][[File:Gupta ashoka hi.jpg|14px]]</sup>[[File:Gupta_allahabad_r.svg|12px]][[File:Gupta_allahabad_ku.jpg|12px]][[File:Gupta_allahabad_l.svg|12px]],<ref>The "h" ([[File:Gupta ashoka h.svg|12px]]) is an early variant of the Gupta script</ref> ''(Ja)yatu Mihirakula'' ("Let there be victory to Mihirakula").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Verma |first1=Thakur Prasad |title=The Imperial Maukharis: History of Imperial Maukharis of Kanauj and Harshavardhana |date=2018 |publisher=Notion Press |isbn=9781643248813 |page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09FqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264 |language=hi |access-date=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2020-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727133323/https://books.google.com/books?id=09FqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sircar |first1=D. C. |title=Studies in Indian Coins |date=2008 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120829732 |page=376 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1JYwP5tVQUC&pg=PA376 |language=en |access-date=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2020-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727133143/https://books.google.com/books?id=m1JYwP5tVQUC&pg=PA376 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tandon |first1=Pankaj |pages=24–34 |title=Notes on the Evolution of Alchon Coins Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society, No. 216, Summer 2013 |date=2013 |publisher=Oriental Numismatic Society |url=http://coinindia.com/galleries-alchon-early.html |access-date=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2019-08-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809153121/http://coinindia.com/galleries-alchon-early.html |url-status=live}} also [http://coinindia.com/galleries-toramana.html Coinindia Alchon Coins (for an exact description of this coin type)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809153724/http://coinindia.com/galleries-toramana.html |date=2019-08-09}}</ref>
File:Sanchi, Inscription of Candragupta II..JPG|[[Sanchi inscription of Chandragupta II]].
</gallery>

==Descendants==
{{Main|Brahmic scripts}}
[[File:Delhi-Topra pillar Brahmi and Nagari.jpg|thumb|1800 years separate these two inscriptions: Brahmi script of the 3rd century BCE ([[Edict of Ashoka]]), and its derivative, 16th century CE [[Devanagari]] script (1524 CE), on the [[Ashokan Edicts in Delhi|Delhi-Topra pillar]].]]
Over the course of a millennium, Brahmi developed into numerous regional scripts. Over time, these regional scripts became associated with the local languages. A Northern Brahmi gave rise to the [[Gupta script]] during the [[Gupta Empire]], sometimes also called "Late Brahmi" (used during the 5th century), which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including the [[Siddhaṃ script]] (6th century) and [[Śāradā script]] (9th century).

Southern Brahmi gave rise to the [[Grantha alphabet]] (6th century), the [[Vatteluttu alphabet]] (8th century), and due to the [[Hinduism in Southeast Asia|contact of Hinduism with Southeast Asia]] during the early centuries CE, also gave rise to the [[Baybayin]] in the [[Philippines]], the [[Javanese script]] in [[Indonesia]], the [[Khmer alphabet]] in [[Cambodia]], and the [[Old Mon script]] in [[Burma]].

Also in the Brahmic family of scripts are several [[Central Asia]]n scripts such as [[Tibetan alphabet|Tibetan]], [[Tocharian alphabet|Tocharian]] (also called slanting Brahmi), and the one used to write the [[Saka language]].

The Brahmi script also evolved into the [[Nagari script]], which in turn evolved into [[Devanagari]] and [[Nandinagari]]. Both were used to write [[Sanskrit]], until the latter was merged into the former. The resulting script is widely adopted across India to write Sanskrit, [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Hindi]] and its dialects, and [[Konkani language|Konkani]].

The arrangement of Brahmi was adopted as the modern order of Japanese [[kana]], though the letters themselves are unrelated.<ref>{{cite book|first=Janet S. (Shibamoto)|last=Smith|chapter=Japanese Writing|editor=Daniels, Peter T. |editor2=Bright, William|title=The World's Writing Systems|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937/page/209 209–17]|year=1996|isbn=0-19-507993-0|title-link=The World's Writing Systems}}</ref>
{{clear}}
{{Brahmi-Gupta-Devanagari}}

===Possible tangential relationships===

Some authors have theorized that some of the basic letters of [[hangul]] may have been influenced by the [['Phags-pa script]] of the [[Mongol Empire]], itself a derivative of the [[Tibetan alphabet]], a Brahmi script (see [[Origin of Hangul]]).{{sfn|Ledyard|1994|p=336–349}}<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Daniels|first1=Peter T.|title=On Writing Syllables: Three Episodes of Script Transfer|journal=Studies in the Linguistic Sciences|date=Spring 2000|volume=30|issue=1|pages=73–86|url=https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9639/SLS2000v30.1-09Daniels.pdf?sequence=2|access-date=2014-06-11|archive-date=2021-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008230542/https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9639/SLS2000v30.1-09Daniels.pdf?sequence=2|url-status=live}}</ref> However, one of the authors, Gari Ledyard, on whose work much of this theorized connection rests, cautions against giving 'Phags-pa much credit in the development of Hangul:

{{blockquote|I have devoted much space and discussion to the role of the Mongol ʼPhags-pa alphabet in the origin of the Korean alphabet, but it should be clear to any reader that in the total picture, that role was quite limited. [...] The origin of the Korean alphabet is, in fact, not a simple matter at all. Those who say it is "based" in ʼPhags-pa are partly right; those who say it is "based" on abstract drawings of articulatory organs are partly right.... Nothing would disturb me more, after this study is published, than to discover in a work on the history of writing a statement like the following: "According to recent investigations, the Korean alphabet was derived from the Mongol ʼPhags-pa script" ... ʼPhags-pa contributed none of the things that make this script perhaps the most remarkable in the world.<ref>Gari Keith Ledyard (1966). ''The Korean language reform of 1446: the origin, background, and early history of the Korean alphabet'', University of California, pp. 367–368, 370, 376.</ref>}}

==Unicode==
{{Main|Brahmi (Unicode block)}}
Early Ashokan Brahmi was added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.

The Unicode block for Brahmi is U+11000–U+1107F. It lies within the [[Supplementary Multilingual Plane]]. As of June 2022 there are two non-commercially available fonts that support Brahmi, namely '''Noto Sans Brahmi''' commissioned by [[Google]], which covers almost all the characters,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/get/noto/#/family/noto-sans-brah |title=Google Noto Fonts – Download Noto Sans Brahmi zip file |access-date=2014-08-22 |archive-date=2017-01-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108130144/https://www.google.com/get/noto/#/family/noto-sans-brah |url-status=live}}</ref> and '''Adinatha''', which only covers Tamil Brahmi.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3813 |title=Adinatha font announcement |access-date=2013-05-07 |archive-date=2021-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016150415/http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3813 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Segoe UI|Segoe UI Historic]], tied in with [[Windows 10]], also features Brahmi glyphs.<ref>[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688099.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#W10 Script and Font Support in Windows – Windows 10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813164751/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688099.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#W10 |date=2016-08-13}}, MSDN Go Global Developer Center.</ref>

The Sanskrit word for Brahmi, ब्राह्मी ([[International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration|IAST]] ''Brāhmī'') in the Brahmi script should be rendered as follows: <big>{{Script|Brah|𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻}}</big>.

{{Unicode chart Brahmi}}

==See also==
{{columnslist|colwidth=30em|
*[[Early Indian epigraphy]]
*[[Lipi (script)|Lipi]]
*[[Pre-Islamic scripts in Afghanistan]]
*[[Shankhalipi]]
*[[Tamil-Brahmi]]
*[[Anaikoddai seal]]
}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book|author1=Annette Wilke|author2=Oliver Moebus|title=Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism|year=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-024003-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Bühler|first=Georg|title=On the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet|url=https://archive.org/details/onoriginofindian00bhuoft|year=1898|publisher=Strassburg K.J. Trübner}}
* {{cite book|last=Deraniyagala|first=Siran|title=The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: An Ecological Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVJcnQEACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Department of Archaeological Survey, Government of Sri Lanka|isbn=978-955-9159-00-1}}
* {{cite book|last1=Falk|first1=Harry|title=Schrift im alten Indien: ein Forschungsbericht mit Anmerkungen|date=1993|publisher=Gunter Narr Verlag|language=de}}
* Gérard Fussman, ''Les premiers systèmes d'écriture en Inde'', in Annuaire du Collège de France 1988–1989 (in French)
*{{Cite book
 |last1=Hayashi
 |first1=Takao
 |chapter=Indian Mathematics
 |year=2003
 |editor1-last=Grattan-Guinness
 |editor1-first=Ivor
 |title=Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences
 |volume=1
 |pages=118–130
 |location=Baltimore
 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press <!-- 976 pages -->
 |isbn=978-0-8018-7396-6
 }}
* Oscar von Hinüber, ''Der Beginn der Schrift und frühe Schriftlichkeit in Indien'', Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990 (in German)
* {{cite book|last=Keay|first=John|author-link=John Keay|title=India: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aeQqmcXBhoC|year=2000|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3797-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Ledyard|first=Gari|author-link=Gari Ledyard|title=The Korean Language Reform of 1446: The Origin, Background, and Early History of the Korean Alphabet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xnc0nQEACAAJ|year=1994|publisher=University Microfilms}}
* {{cite book|last=Masica|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Masica|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC|year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29944-2}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Norman|first1=Kenneth R.|title=The Development of Writing in India and its Effect upon the Pāli Canon|journal=Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens / Vienna Journal of South Asian Studies|date=1992|volume=36|issue=Proceedings of the VIIIth World Sanskrit Conference Vienna|pages=239–249}}
* {{cite book|last1=Patel|first1=Purushottam G.|last2=Pandey|first2=Pramod|last3=Rajgor|first3=Dilip|title=The Indic Scripts: Palaeographic and Linguistic Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CAIaAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=D.K. Printworld|isbn=978-81-246-0406-9|ref={{sfnref|Rajgor|2007}}}}
*{{Cite book
 |last1=Plofker
 |first1=K.
 |chapter=Mathematics of India
 |pages=385–514
 |year=2007
 |editor1-last=Katz
 |editor1-first=Victor J.
 |title=The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook
 |location=Princeton, N.J. 
 |publisher=Princeton University Press
 |isbn=978-0-691-11485-9
 }}
*{{cite book
 |last1=Plofker
 |first1=Kim
 |year=2009
 |title=Mathematics in India: 500 BCE–1800 CE
 |title-link=Mathematics in India (book)
 |location=Princeton, N.J. 
 |publisher=Princeton University Press
 |isbn=978-0-691-12067-6
 }}
* {{cite book|last=Rocher|first=Ludo|author-link=Ludo Rocher|title=Studies in Hindu Law and Dharmaśāstra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dziNBAAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-78308-315-2}}
* {{cite book |first=Richard|last=Salomon|chapter=Brahmi and Kharoshthi|editor=Daniels, Peter T. |editor2=Bright, William |title=The World's Writing Systems |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-507993-0 |title-link=The World's Writing Systems}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Salomon|first1=Richard|title=On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|date=1995|volume=115|issue=2|pages=271–279|doi=10.2307/604670|jstor=604670}}
* {{cite book|last=Salomon|first=Richard|title=Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535666-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Trautmann|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Trautmann|title=Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0W0oVIZgyEwC|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24455-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Timmer|first=Barbara Catharina Jacoba|title=Megasthenes en de Indische maatschappij|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GudWAAAAMAAJ|year=1930|publisher=H.J. Paris}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Brāhmī |editor-last1=Buswell |editor-first1=Robert E. Jr. |editor-last2=Lopez |editor-first2=David S. Jr. |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780190681159.001.0001/acref-9780190681159-e-700?rskey=nZ6Dnf&result=3 |encyclopedia=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780691157863}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=BRĀHMĪ |last=Hitch |first=Douglas A. |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/brahmi-indian-script |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 4 |pages=432–433 |year=1989}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Brahmi |last=Matthews |first=P. H. |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199675128.001.0001/acref-9780199675128-e-400?rskey=nZ6Dnf&result=2 |encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics |edition=3 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-967512-8}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Brahmi-Schrift |author-last=Red. |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/lexikon-des-gesamten-buchwesens-online/*-COM_021409 |encyclopedia=Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens Online |publisher=Brill Online |year=2017 |language=de}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Brahmi script}}
*{{cite web|title=Brahmi Home|url=http://brahmi.sourceforge.net/|website=brahmi.sourceforge.net}} of the [[Indian Institute of Science]]
*{{cite web|title=Brahmi Texts |website=Virtual Vinodh |url=http://www.virtualvinodh.com/wp/brahmi/}}
*[http://www.indoskript.org Indoskript 2.0], a paleographic database of Brahmi and Kharosthi

{{Languages of South Asia}}
{{list of writing systems}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brahmi Script}}
[[Category:3rd-century BC establishments in India]]
[[Category:Linguistic history of India]]
[[Category:Obsolete writing systems]]
[[Category:Brahmic scripts]]