Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2.t5.1

v1.c8.s2.t5.1

Brāhmī lipi (梵寐书) was one of the earliest scripts of ancient India to be found in Ashokan Pillar inscriptions of 3^rd century BCE. It had several varieties that evolved into other scripts such as Siddham, Nagari and Devanagari which were then widely in use. The Arabian scholar Al-Biruni recorded in his book of India that multiple scripts were used in different areas of India in the 11^th century CE. According to him, Brāhmī script was then in use to write many languages and was popular on the Silk Road. The so-called Tocharian and Khotan Saka language were written in Brāhmī script of the middle Asian italic type.