An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s4.52

v1.c25.s4.52

The C. Asian cursive Gupta alphabets are named Khotanese after the language. It began in the 2nd century A.D. but the extant manuscripts are of the 9th-10th centuries. The existing Brāhmī was adopted to suit the requirement of the new language and consequently signs for new compounds, such as *tch*, *js*, *ts*, *ys*, were created. Hoernle suggests that the Khotanese script was strongly influenced by a Semitic alphabet. This script was used to express Chinese words also.