Bhaiksuki alphabet

Bhaiksuki
Type	abugida
Languages	Sanskrit .
Time period	c. 11th–12th century AD
Parent systems	Brāhmī Gupta Bhaiksuki
Sister systems	Sharada Devanagari
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Bhks, 334

Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic Gupta script Bhaiksuki alphabet Tocharian alphabet Khotanese Śāradā script Laṇḍā scripts Gurmukhī alphabet Khojki Khudabadi script Multani alphabet Mahajani Devāśeṣa Takri alphabet Dogra Siddhaṃ script Tibetan alphabet 'Phags-pa script Pungs-chen Pungs-chung Marchen Marchung Zanabazar square script Soyombo alphabet Lepcha alphabet Limbu alphabet Nāgarī script Devanagari Modi alphabet Nandinagari Gujarati alphabet Kaithi Sylheti Nagari Kalinga alphabet Odia alphabet Gaudi Assamese-Bengali Tirhuta Bhujinmol Newar Ranjana alphabet Meithei script
Southern Brahmic Tamil-Brahmi Vatteluttu alphabet Kolezhuthu Tamil script Grantha alphabet Malayalam script Tigalari alphabet Sinhala alphabet Dhives Akuru Saurashtra alphabet Khmer alphabet Lao alphabet Thai alphabet Cham alphabet Ahom alphabet Kawi script Balinese alphabet Javanese script Baybayin Batak alphabet Buhid alphabet Hanunó'o alphabet Tagbanwa alphabet Sundanese alphabet Lontara alphabet Makasar Rejang alphabet Mon alphabet Burmese alphabet Chakma alphabet Tai Tham alphabet Bhattiprolu alphabet Kadamba alphabet Kannada alphabet Telugu script Tai Le alphabet New Tai Lue alphabet

Bhaiksuki (Sanskrit: भैक्षुकी) is a Brahmi-based script that was used around the 11th and 12th centuries CE. It used to be known in English as the "Arrow-Headed Script" or "Point-Headed Script," while an older designation, "Sindhura," had been used in Tibet for at least three centuries. Records showing usage of the script mainly appeared in the present-day states of Bihar and West Bengal in India, and in regions of Bangladesh. Records have also been located in Tibet, Nepal, and Burma.

Bhaiksuki has been accepted for inclusion in a future version of Unicode.

Extant manuscripts

The script is found exclusively in Buddhist texts. According to the Unicode proposal, "Only eleven inscriptions and four manuscripts written in this script are known to exist. These are the Bhaiksuki manuscripts of the Abhidharmasamuccayakārikā, Maṇicūḍajātaka, Candrālaṃkāra, and at least one more Buddhist canonical text. The codex of the Abhidharmasamuccayakārikā was once kept in Tibet, but it is now inaccessible and its exact place of preservation is unknown. The fourth codex was discovered in Tibet and was recently shown in a Chinese documentary; however, information about this manuscript is limited."

Sanskrit is the main language written in this script. It is strongly related to the Devanagari and Sharada scripts.