Brahmic scripts

Not to be confused with the Brahmi script.

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 Gujarati alphabet Modi alphabet Nandinagari 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

History of the alphabet Egyptian hieroglyphs 32 c. BCE Hieratic 32 c. BCE Demotic 7 c. BCE Meroitic 3 c. BCE Proto-Sinaitic 19 c. BCE Ugaritic 15 c. BCE Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. BCE Ge’ez 5–6 c. BCE Phoenician 12 c. BCE Paleo-Hebrew 10 c. BCE Samaritan 6 c. BCE Libyco-Berber 3 c. BCE Tifinagh Paleohispanic (semi-syllabic) 7 c. BCE Aramaic 8 c. BCE Kharoṣṭhī 4 c. BCE Brāhmī 4 c. BCE Brahmic family (see) E.g. Tibetan 7 c. CE Hangul (core letters only) 1443 Devanagari 13 c. CE Canadian syllabics 1840 Hebrew 3 c. BCE Pahlavi 3 c. BCE Avestan 4 c. CE Palmyrene 2 c. BCE Syriac 2 c. BCE Nabataean 2 c. BCE Arabic 4 c. CE Sogdian 2 c. BCE Orkhon (old Turkic) 6 c. CE Old Hungarian c. 650 Old Uyghur Mongolian 1204 N'Ko 20 c. CE Mandaic 2 c. CE Greek 8 c. BCE Etruscan 8 c. BCE Latin 7 c. BCE Cherokee (syllabary; letter forms only) c. 1820 Runic 2 c. CE Ogham (origin uncertain) 4 c. CE Coptic 3 c. CE Gothic 3 c. CE Armenian (origin uncertain) 405 Georgian (origin uncertain) c. 430 Glagolitic (origin uncertain) 862 Cyrillic c. 940 Old Permic 1372 Thaana 18 c. (derived from Brahmi numerals)

The Brahmic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, and were once used in Japan, and are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India. They are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Turkic, Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order of Japanese kana.

History

Spread of Brahmic family of scripts from India.

Brahmic scripts are descended from the Brahmi script. Brahmi is clearly attested from the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka, who used the script for imperial edicts, but there are some claims of earlier epigraphy found on pottery in South India and Sri Lanka. The most reliable of these were short Brahmi inscriptions dated to the 4th century BC and published by Coningham et al., but scattered press reports have claimed both dates as early as the 6th century BC and that the characters are identifiably Tamil Brahmi, though these latter claims do not appear to have been published academically. Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta period, which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including Siddham, Sharada and Nagari.

The Siddham script was especially important in Buddhism, as many sutras were written in it. The art of Siddham calligraphy survives today in Japan. The syllabic nature and dictionary order of the modern kana system of Japanese writing is believed to be descended from the Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism.

Southern Brahmi evolved into Old-Kannada, Pallava and Vatteluttu scripts, which in turn diversified into other scripts of South India and Southeast Asia.

Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BCE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script or 'Kannada-Telugu script' or Kadamba script, also known as 'old Telugu script', owing to its similarity to the same.

Initially, minor changes were made which is now called Tamil Brahmi which has far fewer letters than some of the other Indic scripts as it has no separate aspirated or voiced consonants.

Characteristics

Calligraphy
Arabic Chinese Georgian Indian Islamic Japanese Korean Mongolian Persian Tibetan Western

Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all the scripts, are:

• Each consonant has an inherent vowel which is usually short 'a' (in Bengali, and Assamese, it is short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark, known in Sanskrit as a virama/halant can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
• Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not part of a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
• Consonants (up to 4 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligatures. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
• Nasalization and aspiration of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
• The alphabetical order is: vowels, velar consonants, palatal consonants, retroflex consonants, dental consonants, bilabial consonants, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four stops (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasal consonant.

Comparison

Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts, organised on the principle that glyphs in the same column all derive from the same Brahmi glyph. Accordingly:

• The charts are not comprehensive. Glyphs may be unrepresented if they don't derive from any Brahmi character, but are later inventions.
• The pronunciations of glyphs in the same column may not be identical. The pronunciation row is only representative; the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation is given for Sanskrit where possible, or another language if necessary.

The transliteration is indicated in ISO 15919.

Consonants

ISO	k	kh	g	gh	ṅ	c	ch	j	jh	ñ	ṭ	ṭh	ḍ	ḍh	ṇ	t	th	d	dh	n	ṉ	p	ph	b	bh	m	y	r	ṟ	l	ḷ	ḻ	v	ś	ṣ	s	h
Bengali	ক	খ	গ	ঘ	ঙ	চ	ছ	জ	ঝ	ঞ	ট	ঠ	ড	ঢ	ণ	ত	থ	দ	ধ	ন		প	ফ	ব	ভ	ম	য	র, ৰ		ল			ৱ	শ	ষ	স	হ
Devanagari	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ	ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण	त	थ	द	ध	न	ऩ	प	फ	ब	भ	म	य	र	ऱ	ल	ळ	ऴ	व	श	ष	स	ह
Gujarati	ક	ખ	ગ	ઘ	ઙ	ચ	છ	જ	ઝ	ઞ	ટ	ઠ	ડ	ઢ	ણ	ત	થ	દ	ધ	ન		પ	ફ	બ	ભ	મ	ય	ર		લ	ળ		વ	શ	ષ	સ	હ
Odia	କ	ଖ	ଗ	ଘ	ଙ	ଚ	ଛ	ଜ	ଝ	ଞ	ଟ	ଠ	ଡ	ଢ	ଣ	ତ	ଥ	ଦ	ଧ	ନ	ନ଼	ପ	ଫ	ବ	ଭ	ମ	ୟ	ର	ର଼	ଲ	ଳ	ଳ଼	ୱ	ଶ	ଷ	ସ	ହ
Gurmukhi	ਕ	ਖ	ਗ	ਘ	ਙ	ਚ	ਛ	ਜ	ਝ	ਞ	ਟ	ਠ	ਡ	ਢ	ਣ	ਤ	ਥ	ਦ	ਧ	ਨ		ਪ	ਫ	ਬ	ਭ	ਮ	ਯ	ਰ		ਲ	ਲ਼		ਵ	ਸ਼		ਸ	ਹ
Tibetan	ཀ	ཁ	ག		ང	ཅ	ཆ	ཇ		ཉ	ཊ	ཋ	ཌ		ཎ	ཏ	ཐ	ད		ན		པ	ཕ	བ		མ	ཡ	ར		ལ			ཝ	ཤ	ཥ	ས	ཧ
Brahmi
Telugu	క	ఖ	గ	ఘ	ఙ	చ	ఛ	జ	ఝ	ఞ	ట	ఠ	డ	ఢ	ణ	త	థ	ద	ధ	న		ప	ఫ	బ	భ	మ	య	ర	ఱ	ల	ళ		వ	శ	ష	స	హ
Kannada	ಕ	ಖ	ಗ	ಘ	ಙ	ಚ	ಛ	ಜ	ಝ	ಞ	ಟ	ಠ	ಡ	ಢ	ಣ	ತ	ಥ	ದ	ಧ	ನ		ಪ	ಫ	ಬ	ಭ	ಮ	ಯ	ರ	ಱ	ಲ	ಳ	ೞ	ವ	ಶ	ಷ	ಸ	ಹ
Sinhala	ක	ඛ	ග	ඝ	ඞ	ච	ඡ	ජ	ඣ	ඤ	ට	ඨ	ඩ	ඪ	ණ	ත	ථ	ද	ධ	න		ප	ඵ	බ	භ	ම	ය	ර		ල	ළ		ව	ශ	ෂ	ස	හ
Malayalam	ക	ഖ	ഗ	ഘ	ങ	ച	ഛ	ജ	ഝ	ഞ	ട	ഠ	ഡ	ഢ	ണ	ത	ഥ	ദ	ധ	ന	ഩ	പ	ഫ	ബ	ഭ	മ	യ	ര	റ	ല	ള	ഴ	വ	ശ	ഷ	സ	ഹ
Tamil	க				ங	ச		ஜ		ஞ	ட				ண	த				ந	ன	ப				ம	ய	ர	ற	ல	ள	ழ	வ	ஶ	ஷ	ஸ	ஹ
Burmese	က	ခ	ဂ	ဃ	င	စ	ဆ	ဇ	ဈ	ဉ/ည	ဋ	ဌ	ဍ	ဎ	ဏ	တ	ထ	ဒ	ဓ	န		ပ	ဖ	ဗ	ဘ	မ	ယ	ရ		လ	ဠ	ၔ	ဝ	ၐ	ၑ	သ	ဟ
Khmer	ក	ខ	គ	ឃ	ង	ច	ឆ	ជ	ឈ	ញ	ដ	ឋ	ឌ	ឍ	ណ	ត	ថ	ទ	ធ	ន		ប	ផ	ព	ភ	ម	យ	រ		ល	ឡ		វ	ឝ	ឞ	ស	ហ
Thai	ก	ข	ค	ฆ	ง	จ	ฉ	ช	ฌ	ญ	ฎ*	ฐ	ฑ	ฒ	ณ	ด*	ถ	ท	ธ	น		บ*	ผ	พ	ภ	ม	ย	ร		ล	ฬ		ว	ศ	ษ	ส	ห
Lao	ກ	ຂ	ຄ		ງ	ຈ		ຊ								ດ	ຖ	ທ		ນ		ບ	ຜ	ຟ	ພ	ມ	ຍ	ຣ		ລ			ວ			ສ	ຫ
Balinese	ᬓ	ᬔ	ᬕ	ᬖ	ᬗ	ᬘ	ᬙ	ᬚ	ᬛ	ᬜ	ᬝ	ᬞ	ᬟ	ᬠ	ᬡ	ᬢ	ᬣ	ᬤ	ᬥ	ᬦ		ᬧ	ᬨ	ᬩ	ᬪ	ᬫ	ᬬ	ᬭ		ᬮ			ᬯ	ᬰ	ᬱ	ᬲ	ᬳ
Javanese	ꦏ	ꦑ*	ꦒ	ꦓ*	ꦔ	ꦕ	ꦖ*	ꦗ	ꦙ*	ꦚ	ꦛ	ꦜ*	ꦝ	ꦞ*	ꦟ*	ꦠ	ꦡ*	ꦢ	ꦣ*	ꦤ	ꦘ	ꦥ	ꦦ*	ꦧ	ꦨ*	ꦩ	ꦪ	ꦫ		ꦭ			ꦮ	ꦯ*	ꦰ*	ꦱ	ꦲ
Sundanese	ᮊ		ᮌ		ᮍ	ᮎ		ᮏ		ᮑ						ᮒ		ᮓ		ᮔ		ᮕ		ᮘ		ᮙ	ᮚ	ᮛ		ᮜ			ᮝ			ᮞ	ᮠ
Lontara	ᨀ		ᨁ		ᨂ	ᨌ		ᨍ		ᨎ						ᨈ		ᨉ		ᨊ		ᨄ		ᨅ		ᨆ	ᨐ	ᨑ		ᨒ			ᨓ			ᨔ	ᨕ
Batak (Toba)	ᯂ		ᯎ		ᯝ			ᯐ		ᯠ/ᯛ						ᯖ		ᯑ		ᯉ		ᯇ		ᯅ		ᯔ		ᯒ		ᯞ			ᯞ			ᯘ	ᯂ

• Javanese. Letters used in Old Javanese. They are now obsolete, but are used for honorifics in contemporary Javanese.
• Thai. A modified form of the letter is used for, but is not restricted to, Sanskrit and Pali in the Thai script.
• Malayalam. Malayalam nna implemented in Unicode 6.0. May not be rendered correctly.
• Tamil. Pallava grantha letters (not used in actual Tamil) but for transcribing foreign words.

Vowels

Vowels are presented in their independent form on the left of each column, and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant k on the right. A glyph for ka is an independent consonant letter itself without any vowel sign, where the vowel a is inherent. When used to write their own languages, Khmer and Thai script can have either an a or an o as the inherent vowel, following the rules of their respective orthographies. Thai and Lao script do not have independent vowel forms, for syllables starting with a vowel sound, a zero consonant, อ and ອ respectively, is used as a placeholder.

ISO	a		ā		æ		ɒ		i		ī		u		ū		e		ē		ai		o		ō		au		r̥		r̥̄		l̥		l̥̄		ṁ		ḥ
Odia	ଅ	କ	ଆ	କା	ଅଽ	କଽ			ଇ	କି	ଈ	କୀ	ଉ	କୁ	ଊ	କୂ			ଏ	କେ	ଐ	କୈ			ଓ	କୋ	ଔ	କୌ	ଋ	କୃ	ୠ	କୃ୍	ଌ	କ୍ଲୃ	ୡ	କ୍ଳୃ	ଂ	କଂ	ଃ	କଃ
Assamese	অ	ক	আ	কা	অ্যা	ক্যা			ই	কি	ঈ	কী	উ	কু	ঊ	কূ			এ	কে	ঐ	কৈ			ও	কো	ঔ	কৌ	ঋ	কৃ	ৠ	কৄ	ঌ	কৢ	ৡ	কৣ
Bengali	অ	ক	আ	কা	অ্যা	ক্যা			ই	কি	ঈ	কী	উ	কু	ঊ	কূ	এ	কে			ঐ	কৈ	অ	ক	ও	কো	ঔ	কৌ	ঋ	কৃ	ৠ	কৄ	ঌ	কৢ	ৡ	কৣ
Devanagari	अ	क	आ	का	अॅ	कॅ	ऑ	कॉ	इ	कि	ई	की	उ	कु	ऊ	कू	ऎ	कॆ	ए	के	ऐ	कै	ऒ	कॊ	ओ	को	औ	कौ	ऋ	कृ	ॠ	कॄ	ऌ	कॢ	ॡ	कॣ	अं	कं	अः	कः
Gujarati	અ	ક	આ	કા					ઇ	કિ	ઈ	કી	ઉ	કુ	ઊ	કૂ			એ	કે	ઐ	કૈ			ઓ	કો	ઔ	કૌ	ઋ	કૃ	ૠ	કૄ	ઌ	કૢ	ૡ	કૣ
Gurmukhi	ਅ	ਕ	ਆ	ਕਾ					ਇ	ਕਿ	ਈ	ਕੀ	ਉ	ਕੁ	ਊ	ਕੂ			ਏ	ਕੇ	ਐ	ਕੈ			ਓ	ਕੋ	ਔ	ਕੌ
Tibetan	ཨ	ཀ	ཨཱ	ཀཱ					ཨི	ཀི	ཨཱི	ཀཱི	ཨུ	ཀུ	ཨཱུ	ཀཱུ			ཨེ	ཀེ	ཨཻ	ཀཻ			ཨོ	ཀོ	ཨཽ	ཀཽ	རྀ	ཀྲྀ	རཱྀ	ཀཷ	ལྀ	ཀླྀ	ལཱྀ	ཀླཱྀ
Brahmi
Telugu	అ	క	ఆ	కా					ఇ	కి	ఈ	కీ	ఉ	కు	ఊ	కూ	ఎ	కె	ఏ	కే	ఐ	కై	ఒ	కొ	ఓ	కో	ఔ	కౌ	ఋ	కృ	ౠ	కౄ	ఌ	కౢ	ౡ	కౣ	అం	కం	అః	కః
Kannada	ಅ	ಕ	ಆ	ಕಾ					ಇ	ಕಿ	ಈ	ಕೀ	ಉ	ಕು	ಊ	ಕೂ	ಎ	ಕೆ	ಏ	ಕೇ	ಐ	ಕೈ	ಒ	ಕೊ	ಓ	ಕೋ	ಔ	ಕೌ	ಋ	ಕೃ	ೠ	ಕೄ	ಌ	ಕೢ	ೡ	ಕೣ	అం	ಕಂ	అః	ಕಃ
Sinhala	අ	ක	ආ	කා	ඇ	කැ	ඈ	කෑ	ඉ	කි	ඊ	කී	උ	කු	ඌ	කූ	එ	කෙ	ඒ	කේ	ඓ	කෛ	ඔ	කො	ඕ	කෝ	ඖ	කෞ	ඍ	කෘ	ඎ	කෲ	ඏ	කෟ	ඐ	කෳ
Malayalam	അ	ക	ആ	കാ					ഇ	കി	ഈ	കീ	ഉ	കു	ഊ	കൂ	എ	കെ	ഏ	കേ	ഐ	കൈ	ഒ	കൊ	ഓ	കോ	ഔ	കൗ	ഋ	കൃ	ൠ	കൄ	ഌ	കൢ	ൡ	കൣ	അം	കം	അഃ	കഃ
Tamil	அ	க	ஆ	கா					இ	கி	ஈ	கீ	உ	கு	ஊ	கூ	எ	கெ	ஏ	கே	ஐ	கை	ஒ	கொ	ஓ	கோ	ஔ	கௌ
Burmese	အ	က	အာ	ကာ					ဣ	ကိ	ဤ	ကီ	ဥ	ကု	ဦ	ကူ	ဧ	ကေ	အေး	ကေး			ဩ	ကော			ဪ	ကော်	ၒ	ကၖ	ၓ	ကၗ	ၔ	ကၘ	ၕ	ကၙ
Khmer	ឣ	ក	ឤ	កា					ឥ	កិ	ឦ	កី	ឧ	កុ	ឩ	កូ			ឯ	កេ	ឰ	កៃ			ឱ	កោ	ឳ	កៅ	ឫ	ក្ឫ	ឬ	ក្ឬ	ឭ	ក្ឭ	ឮ	ក្ឮ
Thai		ก		กา						กิ		กี		กุ		กู				เก		ไก/ใก				โก		เกา/กาว	ฤ	กฤ	ฤๅ	กฤๅ	ฦ	กฦ	ฦๅ	กฦๅ
Lao		ກັ		ກາ						ກິ		ກີ		ກຸ		ກູ				ເກ		ໄກ/ໃກ				ໂກ		ເກົາ/ກາວ
Balinese	ᬅ	ᬓ	ᬆ	ᬓᬵ					ᬇ	ᬓᬶ	ᬈ	ᬓᬷ	ᬉ	ᬓᬸ	ᬊ	ᬓᬹ	ᬏ	ᬓᬾ			ᬐ	ᬓᬿ	ᬑ	ᬓᭀ			ᬒ	ᬓᭁ	ᬋ	ᬓᬺ	ᬌ	ᬓᬻ	ᬍ	ᬓᬼ	ᬎ	ᬓᬽ
Javanese	ꦄ	ꦏ	ꦄꦴ	ꦏꦴ					ꦆ	ꦏꦶ	ꦇ	ꦏꦷ	ꦈ	ꦏꦸ	ꦈꦴ	ꦏꦹ	ꦌ	ꦏꦺ			ꦍ	ꦏꦻ	ꦎ	ꦏꦺꦴ			ꦎꦴ	ꦏꦻꦴ	ꦉ	ꦏꦽ	ꦉꦴ	ꦏꦽꦴ	ꦊ		ꦋ
Sundanese	ᮃ	ᮊ							ᮄ	ᮊᮤ			ᮅ	ᮊᮥ			ᮈ	ᮊᮦ					ᮇ	ᮊᮧ
Buginese		ᨕ								ᨕᨗ				ᨕᨘ				ᨕᨙ						ᨕᨚ
Bataknese (Toba)	ᯀ	ᯂ							ᯤ	ᯂᯪ			ᯥ	ᯂᯮ				ᯂᯩ						ᯂᯬ

Note: Glyphs for r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ and a few other glyphs are obsolete or very rarely used.

Numerals

Hindu-Arabic	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Odia	୦	୧	୨	୩	୪	୫	୬	୭	୮	୯
Assamese	০	১	২	৩	৪	৫	৬	৭	৮	৯
Bengali	০	১	২	৩	৪	৫	৬	৭	৮	৯
Devanagari	०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
Gujarati	૦	૧	૨	૩	૪	૫	૬	૭	૮	૯
Gurmukhi	੦	੧	੨	੩	੪	੫	੬	੭	੮	੯
Tibetan	༠	༡	༢	༣	༤	༥	༦	༧	༨	༩
Brahmi N	𑁚	𑁒	𑁓	𑁔	𑁕	𑁖	𑁗	𑁘	𑁙	𑁚
Brahmi D	𑁦	𑁧	𑁨	𑁩	𑁪	𑁫	𑁬	𑁭	𑁮	𑁯
Telugu	౦	౧	౨	౩	౪	౫	౬	౭	౮	౯
Kannada	೦	೧	೨	೩	೪	೫	೬	೭	೮	೯
Malayalam	൦	൧	൨	൩	൪	൫	൬	൭	൮	൯
Tamil	೦	௧	௨	௩	௪	௫	௬	௭	௮	௯
Burmese	၀	၁	၂	၃	၄	၅	၆	၇	၈	၉
Khmer	០	១	២	៣	៤	៥	៦	៧	៨	៩
Thai	๐	๑	๒	๓	๔	๕	๖	๗	๘	๙
Lao	໐	໑	໒	໓	໔	໕	໖	໗	໘	໙
Balinese	᭐	᭑	᭒	᭓	᭔	᭕	᭖	᭗	᭘	᭙
Javanese	꧐	꧑	꧒	꧓	꧔	꧕	꧖	꧗	꧘	꧙
Sundanese	᮰	᮱	᮲	᮳	᮴	᮵	᮶	᮷	᮸	᮹

List of Brahmic scripts

Scripts derived from Brahmi.

Historical

A fragment of Ashoka's 6th pillar edict.

Indo-Aryan languages (incl Dogri) using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except dark blue colored- Sindhi, Lahnda, Western Panjabi, Shina, Kashmiri, Urdu- not marked here, which use Arabic derived scripts).

Dravidian languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except Brahui which uses Arabic derived script).

The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BC. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century AD and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Vatteluttu and Old-Kannada/Pallava scripts with the spread of Buddhism sent Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.

• Northern Brahmic
  • Gupta script, 5th century
    • Sharada, 8th century
      • Landa, 10th century
        • Gurmukhi, 14th century
        • Khojki, 16th century
        • Khudawadi, 1550s
        • Mahajani
        • Multani
      • Takri
    • Siddham, 7th century
      • Assamese script, 13th century
      • Bengali alphabet, 11th century
      • Tibetan script, 7th century
        • 'Phags-pa, 13th century
    • Tirhuta
    • Nagari, 8th century
      • Odia, 10th century
      • Devanagari, 13th century
        • Gujarati, 16th century
        • Modi, 17th century
      • Kaithi, 16th century
      • Sylheti Nagari, 16th century
    • Bhaiksuki
  • Nepal
    • Bhujimol, 6th century
    • Ranjana, 12th century
      • Soyombo, 17th century
    • Prachalit
  • Anga Lipi, 720
  • Mithilakshar, 15th century
• Southern Brahmic (Tamil Brahmi, perhaps 5th or older but certainly 3rd, century BC, Kalinga, Bhattiprolu)
  • Proto Kannada
    • Kadamba or Old Kannada, 5th century
    • Pallava, 6th century
      • Kawi script, 8th century
        • Javanese script
      • Mon script
        • Burmese script
      • Ahom, 13th century
      • Tai Tham (Lanna), 14th century
      • Batak, 14th century
      • Chakma, 8th century
  • Vatteluttu
    • Tamil script
  • Grantha, 6th century
    • Dhives Akuru
    • Malayalam script
    • Tulu script
• Tocharian script ("Slanting Brahmi"), 7th century
• Meeitei Mayek

Unicode

As of Unicode version 9.0, the following Brahmic scripts have been encoded:

script	derivation	period of derivation	usage notes	ISO 15924	Unicode range(s)	sample
Ahom	Pallava grantha	13th century	Extinct Ahom language	Ahom	U+11700–U1173F
Balinese	Old Kawi	11th century	Balinese language	Bali	U+1B00–U1B7F	ᬅᬓ᭄ᬲᬭᬩᬮᬶ
Batak	Pallava grantha	14th century	Batak languages	Batk	U+1BC0–U1BFF
Baybayin	Old Kawi	14th century	Tagalog, other Philippine languages	Tglg	U+1700–U171F	ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔
Bengali	Siddham	11th century	Assamese language (Assamese script variant), Bengali language (Bengali script variant), Bishnupriya Manipuri, Maithili, Angika	Beng	U+0980–U09FF	অসমীয়া লিপি বাংলা লিপি
Bhaiksuki	Gupta		Was used around the turn of the first millenium for writing Sanskrit	Bhks	U+11C00–U11C6F
Buhid	Old Kawi	14th century	Buhid language	Buhd	U+1740–U175F	ᝊᝓᝑᝒᝇ
Burmese	Pallava grantha	11th century	Burmese language, numerous modifications for other languages including Chakma, Eastern and Western Pwo Karen, Geba Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rumai Palaung, S'gaw Karen, Shan	Mymr	U+1000–U109F, U+A9E0–UA9FF, U+AA60–UAA7F	မြန်မာအက္ခရာ
Chakma	Pallava grantha	8th century	Chakma language	Cakm	U+11100–U1114F
Cham	Pallava grantha	8th century	Cham language	Cham	U+AA00–UAA5F	ꨌꨠ
Devanagari	Nagari	13th century	Numerous Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Sindhi and Kashmiri. Formerly used to write Gujarati. Sometimes used to write or transliterate Sherpa	Deva	U+0900–U097F, U+A8E0–UA8FF	देवनागरी
Grantha	Brahmi	6th century	Restricted use in traditional Vedic schools to write Sanskrit. Was widely used by Tamil speakers for Sanskrit and the classical language Manipravalam.	Gran	U+11300–U1137F
Gujarati	Nagari	17th century	Gujarati language, Kutchi language	Gujr	U+0A80–U0AFF	ગુજરાતી લિપિ
Gurmukhi	Sharada	16th century	Punjabi language	Guru	U+0A00–U0A7F	ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ
Hanunó'o	Old Kawi	14th century	Hanuno'o language	Hano	U+1720–U173F	ᜱᜨᜳᜨᜳᜢ
Javanese	Old Kawi	16th century	Javanese language, Sundanese language, Madurese language	Java	U+A980–UA9DF	ꦄꦏ꧀ꦱꦫꦗꦮ
Kaithi	Nagari	16th century	Historically used for writing legal, administrative, and private records.	Kthi	U+11080–U110CF
Kannada	Kadamba/Old Kannada	9th century	Kannada language, Konkani language Tulu, Badaga, Kodava, Beary others	Knda	U+0C80–U0CFF	ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ
Khmer	Pallava grantha	11th century	Khmer language	Khmr	U+1780–U17FF, U+19E0–U19FF	អក្សរខ្មែរ
Khojki	Landa	16th century	Some use by Ismaili communities. Was used by the Khoja community for Muslim religious literature.	Khoj	U+11200–U1124F
Khudawadi	Landa	1550s	Was used by Sindhi communities for correspondence and business records.	Sind	U+112B0–U112FF
Lao	Khmer	14th century	Lao language, others	Laoo	U+0E80–U0EFF	ອັກສອນລາວ
Lepcha	Tibetan	18th century	Lepcha language	Lepc	U+1C00–U1C4F
Limbu	Lepcha	18th century	Limbu language	Limb	U+1900–U194F	ᤛᤡᤖᤡᤈᤨᤅ
Lontara	Old Kawi	17th century	Buginese language, others	Bugi	U+1A00–U1A1F	ᨒᨚᨈᨑ
Mahajani	Landa		Historically used in northern India for writing accounts and financial records.	Mahj	U+11150–U1117F
Malayalam	Grantha	12th century	Malayalam language	Mlym	U+0D00–U0D7F	മലയാളലിപി
Marchen			Was used in the Tibetan Bön tradition to write the extinct Zhang-Zhung language	Marc	U+11C70–U11CBF
Meetei Mayek			Historically used for the Meithei language. Some modern usage.	Mtei	U+AAE0–UAAFF, U+ABC0–UABFF
Modi	Devanagari	17th century	Was used to write the Marathi language	Modi	U+11600–U1165F
Multani	Landa		Was used to write Saraiki	Mult	U+11280–U112AF
New Tai Lue	Tai Tham	1950s	Tai Lü language	Talu	U+1980–U19DF	ᦟᦲᧅᦎᦷᦑᦺ
Odia	Kalinga	10th century	Odia language	Orya	U+0B00–U0B7F	ଉତ୍କଳାକ୍ଷର
'Phags-Pa	Tibetan	13th century	Historically used during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.	Phag	U+A840–UA87F
Prachalit (Newa)	Nepal		Has been used for writing the Sanskrit, Nepali, Hindi, Bengali, and Maithili languages	Newa	U+11400–U1147F
Rejang	Old Kawi	18th century	Rejang language, mostly obsolete	Rjng	U+A930–UA95F	ꥆꤰ꥓ꤼꤽ ꤽꥍꤺꥏ
Saurashtra	Grantha	20th century	Saurashtra language, mostly obsolete	Saur	U+A880–UA8DF	ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬꢵ
Sharada	Gupta	8th century	Was used for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri	Shrd	U+11180–U111DF
Siddham	Gupta	7th century	Was used for writing Sanskrit	Sidd	U+11580–U115FF
Sinhala	Grantha	12th century	Sinhala language	Sinh	U+0D80–U0DFF, U+111E0–U111FF	ශුද්ධ සිංහල
Sundanese	Old Kawi	14th century	Sundanese language	Sund	U+1B80–U1BBF, U+1CC0–U1CCF	ᮃᮊ᮪ᮞᮛ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ
Sylheti Nagari	Nagari	16th century	Historically used for writing the Sylheti language	Sylo	U+A800–UA82F
Tagbanwa	Old Kawi	14th century	various languages of Palawan, nearly extinct	Tagb	U+1760–U177F	ᝦᝪᝨᝯ
Tai Le	Pallava grantha?		Tai Nüa language	Tale	U+1950–U197F	ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ
Tai Tham	Mon Script	13th Century	Northern Thai language, Tai Lü language, Khün language	Lana	U+1A20–U1AAF	ᨲᩫ᩠ᩅᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ
Tai Viet	Thai?	16th century	Tai Dam language	Tavt	U+AA80–UAADF	ꪼꪕꪒꪾ
Takri	Sharada		Was used for writing Chambeali, Dogri, and other languages	Takr	U+11680–U116CF
Tamil	Chola-Pallava alphabet	3rd Century BCE	Tamil language	Taml	U+0B80–U0BFF	தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி
Telugu	Bhattiprolu script/Old Kannada	11th Century Nannayya	Telugu language	Telu	U+0C00–U0C7F	తెలుగు లిపి
Thai	Khmer	13th century	Thai language	Thai	U+0E00–U0E7F	อักษรไทย
Tibetan	Siddham	8th century	Tibetan language, Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language	Tibt	U+0F00–U0FFF	དབུ་ཅན་
Tirhuta	Gupta		Historically used for the Maithili language	Tirh	U+11480–U114DF

See also

• Devanagari transliteration
  • International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
  • National Library at Kolkata romanization
• Bharati Braille, the unified braille assignments of Indian languages
• Indus script – the earliest writing system on the Indian subcontinent
• ISCII – the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts

External links

• Online Tool which supports Conversion between various Brahmic Scripts
• Windows Indic Script Support
• An Introduction to Indic Scripts
• South Asian Writing Systems
• Indian Transliterator A means to transliterate from romanised to Unicode Indian scripts.
• Imperial Brahmi Font and Text-Editor
• Brahmi Script
• Xlit: Tool for Transliteration between English and Indian Languages
• Padma: Transformer for Indic Scripts – a Firefox add-on