| Nāgarī | |
|---|---|
 The wordNāgarī in the Nāgarī script. | |
| Script type | |
Period | 7th century CE |
| Languages | |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | |
Sister systems | Bengali-Assamese script,Odia script,[2]Nepalese |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| TheBrahmi script and its descendants |
TheNāgarī script is the ancestor ofDevanagari,Nandinagari and other variants, and was first used to writePrakrit andSanskrit. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.[7][8][9] It came in vogue during the first millennium CE.[10]
The Nāgarī script has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family.[9] 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.[8][11][12]
Nagari is avṛddhi derivation fromनगर (nagara), which means city.[13]
The Nāgarī script appeared inancient India as a central-eastern variant of theGupta script (whereasŚāradā was the western variety andSiddham was the far eastern variety). In turn it branched off into several scripts, such as Devanagari and Nandinagari.[citation needed]
The 7th century Tibetan kingSongtsen 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.[14]
The museum in Mrauk-u (Mrohaung) in theRakhine state ofMyanmar held in 1972 two examples of Nāgarī script. ArchaeologistAung Thaw describes these inscriptions, associated with theChandra, or Candra, dynasty that first hailed from the ancient Indian city ofVesáli:[15]
... epigraphs in mixed Sanskrit and Pali in North-eastern Nāgarī script of the 6th century dedicated by [Queen] Niti Candra and [King] Vira Candra
— Aung Thaw, Historical sites in Burma (1972)
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)Northern Nāgarī (almost identical with modern Nagari)
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