The Nāgarī script or Northern Nagari of
Kashi is the ancestor of
Devanagari,
Nandinagari
Nandinagari is a Brahmic script derived from the Nāgarī script which appeared in the 7th century AD.George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, , page 75 This script and its variants were used in the central Dec ...
and other variants, and was first used to write
Prakrit and
Sanskrit. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.
[Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83][George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, , pages 68-69] It came in vogue during the first millennium CE.
The Nāgarī script has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family.
Some of the earliest epigraph evidence attesting to the developing Sanskrit Nāgarī script in ancient India is from the 1st to 4th century CE inscriptions discovered in
Gujarat.
[, Rudradaman’s inscription from 1st through 4th century CE found in Gujarat, India, Stanford University Archives, pages 30-45] 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.
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]
Etymology
Nagari comes from नगर (), which means city.
Origins
The Nāgarī script appeared in ancient India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
as a central-eastern variant of the Gupta script
The Gupta script (sometimes referred to as Gupta Brahmi script or Late Brahmi script)Sharma, Ram. '' 'Brahmi Script' ''. Delhi: BR Publishing Corp, 2002 was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of the Indian subcon ...
(whereas Śāradā was the western variety and Siddham was the far eastern variety). In turn it branched off into several scripts, such as Devanagari and Nandinagari.
Usage outside India
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.
The museum in Mrauk-u (Mrohaung
Mrauk U ( ) is a town in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. It is the capital of Mrauk-U Township, a subregion of the Mrauk-U District.
Mrauk U is of great cultural importance to the local Rakhine (Arakanese) people, and is the location of many ...
) in the Rakhine state
Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Bengal ...
of Myanmar held in 1972 two examples of Nāgarī script. Archaeologist Aung Thaw Aung Thaw ( my, အောင်သော် ; born c. 1920) is a Burmese archaeologist and Emeritus Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of Burma.
Between 1959 and 1968, he excavated and studied intensely the historical site of Beikthan ...
describes these inscriptions, associated with the Chandra, or Candra, dynasty that first hailed from the ancient Indian city of Vesáli:
See also
*Brahmi script
Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...
*Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
* Devanagari
*Nandinagari
Nandinagari is a Brahmic script derived from the Nāgarī script which appeared in the 7th century AD.George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, , page 75 This script and its variants were used in the central Dec ...
* Sylheti Nagri
*Eastern Nagari
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
* Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
* Eastern Air ...
*Lipi
Lipi may refer to:
People
* Bruno Lipi (born 1994), Albanian football player
* Syeda Zakia Noor Lipi, Bangladesh politician
* Tayeba Begum Lipi (born 1969), Bangladeshi artist
Places
* Lipí, Czech Republic
Other
* LIPI, the Indonesian Insti ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagari Script
Brahmic scripts