View source for Nāgarī script

{{Short description|Abugida}}
{{Infobox Writing system
 |name=Nāgarī
 |type=[[Abugida]]
|sample=The word Nāgarī in the Nāgarī script.jpg
|imagesize=250px
|caption=The word ''Nāgarī'' in the Nāgarī script.
 |languages={{plainlist|
*[[Sanskrit]]
*[[Prakrit]]}}
 |time= 7th century CE
|fam1=[[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]]
|fam2=[[Phoenician alphabet]]
|fam3=[[Aramaic alphabet]]
|fam4=[[Brahmi script|Brahmi]]
|fam5=[[Gupta script|Gupta]]
|fam6=[[Siddhaṃ script|Siddhaṃ]]<ref>https://archive.org/details/epigraphyindianepigraphyrichardsalmonoup_908_D/mode/2up,p39-41 {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref><ref name="Akshara Orthography 2019 p.27">Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019), p. 27</ref><ref name=daniels>{{cite journal |last1=Daniels |first1=P.T. |title=Writing systems of major and minor languages |date=January 2008}}</ref><ref name="masica">{{cite book |last1=Masica |first1=Colin |title=The Indo-Aryan languages |date=1993 |page=143}}</ref>
|sisters=[[Bengali-Assamese script]], [[Odia script]],<ref name="Akshara Orthography 2019 p.27">Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride (2019), p. 27</ref> [[Nepalese scripts|Nepalese]]
 |children={{plainlist|
*[[Devanagari]]
*[[Kaithi]]
*[[Nandinagari]]
*[[Gujarati script|Gujarati]]
*[[Modi script|Modi]]}}
}}
[[File:1st century Sravasti Bodhisattva, Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, Saheth-Maheth, Uttar Pradesh India.jpg|thumb|260px|Inscribed life-sized [[Shravasti]] [[Bodhisattva]] statue inscribed in 1st-century Brahmi script (first three lines) and 9th-century Nagari script (last line).<ref>Richard Salomon (1992), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, p. 81</ref><ref>D.R. Sahni (1911), ''Sahet-Mahet plate of Govinda Chandra Samvat 1186'', Epigraphia Indica, Volume XI, pp. 20–26</ref> ]]
{{brahmic}}
The '''Nāgarī script''' is the ancestor of [[Devanagari]], [[Nandinagari]] and other variants, and was first used to write [[Prakrit]] and [[Sanskrit]]. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tripathi |first=Kunjabihari |title=The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script |publisher=Utkal University |year=1962 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8MKAQAAIAAJ |page=28 |quote="Northern Nāgarī (almost identical with modern Nagari)" |access-date=21 March 2021 }}</ref><ref name=kathleen>Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, {{ISBN|978-1615301492}}, page 83</ref><ref name="Danesh Jain 2003">George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415772945}}, pages 68-69</ref> It came in vogue during the first millennium CE.<ref name=nagari>{{cite book|chapter=Devanagari through the ages |title=India Central Hindi Directorate (Instituut voor Toegepaste Sociologie te Nijmegen)|year=1967|location=University of California}}</ref>

The Nāgarī script has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family.<ref name="Danesh Jain 2003"/> The Nāgarī script was in regular use by 7th century CE, and had fully evolved into Devanagari and Nandinagari scripts by about the end of first millennium of the common era.<ref name=kathleen/><ref>Richard Salomon (2014), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195356663}}, pages 33-47</ref><ref>Pandey, Anshuman. (2017). [https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17162-nandinagari.pdf ''Final proposal to encode Nandinagari in Unicode''.]</ref>

==Etymology==
Nagari is a [[vṛddhi]] derivation from [[wikt:नगर|नगर]] ({{Transliteration|hi|ISO|nagara}}), which means city.<ref>Monier Williams Online Dictionary, [http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html nagara], Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon, Germany</ref>

==Origins==
The Nāgarī script appeared in [[History of India|ancient India]] as a central-eastern variant of the [[Gupta script]] (whereas [[Śāradā script|Śāradā]] was the western variety and [[Siddham alphabet|Siddham]] was the far eastern variety). In turn it branched off into several scripts, such as Devanagari and Nandinagari.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

==Usage outside India==
{{Further|Sanskrit epigraphy}}

The 7th century Tibetan king [[Songtsen Gampo]] ordered that all foreign books be transcribed into the Tibetan language, and sent his ambassador Tonmi Sambota to India to acquire alphabetic and writing methods, who returned with a Sanskrit Nāgarī script from Kashmir corresponding to twenty-four (24) Tibetan sounds and innovating new symbols for six (6) local sounds.<ref>William Woodville Rockhill, {{Google books|avFDAQAAMAAJ|Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution|page=671}}, United States National Museum, page 671</ref>

The museum in Mrauk-u ([[Mrohaung]]) in the [[Rakhine state]] of [[Myanmar]] held in 1972 two examples of Nāgarī script. Archaeologist [[Aung Thaw]] describes these inscriptions, associated with the [[Chandra dynasty|Chandra, or Candra]], dynasty that first hailed from the ancient Indian city of [[Vaishali (ancient city)|Vesáli]]:<ref>{{cite book |author1=Aung Thaw |author1-link=Aung Thaw |title=Historical sites in Burma |date=1972 |publisher=Ministry of Union Culture, Government of the Union of Burma |location=Rangoon |oclc=65722346|language=en}}</ref> 
{{blockquote|... epigraphs in mixed Sanskrit and Pali in North-eastern Nāgarī script of the 6th century dedicated by [Queen] Niti Candra and [King] Vira Candra
|author= [[Aung Thaw]]
|source= Historical sites in Burma (1972) }}

<gallery class="center" widths="120px" heights="200px">
File:Copper plates NMND-1.JPG|Coppern plates in Nāgarī script, 1035 CE
File:Nagari Script 01.jpg|Nagari Script 01
File:Nagari Script 02.jpg|Nagari Script 02
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Brahmi script]]
*[[Brahmic scripts]]
*[[Devanagari]]
*[[Nandinagari]]
*[[Sylheti Nagri]]
*[[Eastern Nagari]]
*[[Lipi (script)|Lipi]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{List of writing systems |Abugidas}}
{{Sanskrit}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagari Script}}
[[Category:Brahmic scripts]]