| Kharosthi 𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨮𐨿𐨛𐨁𐨌 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | 4th century BCE – 3rd century CE |
| Direction | Right-to-left script  |
| Languages | |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Khar(305), Kharoshthi |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Kharoshthi |
| U+10A00–U+10A5F | |
| 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. | |
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Kharosthi script (Gāndhārī:𐨑𐨪𐨆𐨮𐨿𐨛𐨁𐨌 𐨫𐨁𐨤𐨁,romanized: kharoṣṭhī lipi), also known as theGandhari script (𐨒𐨌𐨣𐨿𐨢𐨌𐨪𐨁𐨌 𐨫𐨁𐨤𐨁,gāndhārī lipi),[1] was an ancient Indic script originally developed in theGandhara Region of the north-westernIndian subcontinent, between the 5th and 3rd century BCE.[2][3][4] Primarily used by the people ofGandhara in various parts ofSouth Asia andCentral Asia, Kharosthi remained in use until it died out in its homeland around the 5th century CE.[5] It was also in use inBactria, theKushan Empire,Sogdia, and along theSilk Road. There is some evidence it may have survived until the7th century inKhotan andNiya, both cities inTarim Basin.
The name Kharosthi may derive from the Hebrewkharosheth, a Semitic word for writing,[6] or fromOld Iranian*xšaθra-pištra, which means "royal writing".[7] The script was earlier also known asIndo-Bactrian script,Kabul script andArian-Pali.[8][9]
Scholars are not in agreement as to whether the Kharosthi script evolved gradually, or was the deliberate work of a single inventor. An analysis of the script forms shows a clear dependency on theAramaic alphabet but with extensive modifications. Kharosthi seems to be derived from a form of Aramaic used in administrative work during the reign ofDarius the Great, rather than the monumentalcuneiform used for public inscriptions.[6] One theory suggests that the Aramaic script arrived with theAchaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley in 500 BCE and evolved over the next 200+ years to reach its final form by the 3rd century BCE where it appears in some of the Edicts of Ashoka. However, no intermediate forms have yet been found to confirm this evolutionary model, and rock and coin inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE onward show a unified and standard form. An inscription in Aramaic dating back to the 4th century BCE was found inSirkap, testifying to the presence of the Aramaic script in present-day Pakistan. According toSir John Marshall, this seems to confirm that Kharoshthi was later developed from Aramaic.[10]
While the Brahmi script remained in use for centuries, Kharosthi seems to have been abandoned after the 2nd–3rd century AD. Because of the substantial differences between the Semitic-derived Kharosthi script and its successors, knowledge of Kharosthi may have declined rapidly once the script was supplanted by Brahmi-derived scripts, until its re-discovery by Western scholars in the 19th century.[6]
The Kharosthi script was deciphered separately almost concomitantly byJames Prinsep (in 1835, published in theJournal of the Asiatic society of Bengal, India)[11] and byCarl Ludwig Grotefend (in 1836, published inBlätter für Münzkunde, Germany),[12] with Grotefend "evidently not aware" of Prinsep's article, followed byChristian Lassen (1838).[13] They all used the bilingual coins of theIndo-Greek Kingdom (obverse in Greek, reverse inPali, using the Kharosthi script). This in turn led to the reading of theEdicts of Ashoka, some of which were written in the Kharosthi script (theMajor Rock Edicts atMansehra andShahbazgarhi).[6]
The study of the Kharosthi script was recently invigorated by the discovery of theGandhāran Buddhist texts, a set ofbirch bark manuscripts written in Kharosthi, discovered near the Afghan city ofHadda just west of theKhyber Pass inPakistan. The manuscripts were donated to theBritish Library in 1994. The entire set of British Library manuscripts are dated to the 1st century CE, although other collections from different institutions contain Kharosthi manuscripts from 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE,[14][15] making them the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered.
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Kharosthi is mostly written right to left. Some variations in both the number and order of syllables occur in extant texts.[citation needed]
The Kharosthi alphabet is also known as the arapacana alphabet, and follows the order.
This alphabet was used inGandharan Buddhism as a mnemonic for thePañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, a series of verses on the nature of phenomena.
| Unvoiced | Voiced | Nasal | Semivowel | Sibilant | Fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirated | Aspirated | Unaspirated | Aspirated | |||||
| Velar | 𐨐 k IPA:/k/ | 𐨑 kh | 𐨒 g IPA:/ɡ/ | 𐨓 gh | 𐨱 h IPA:/h/ | |||
| Palatal | 𐨕 c IPA:/c/ | 𐨖 ch | 𐨗 j IPA:/ɟ/ | 𐨙 ñ IPA:/ɲ/ | 𐨩 y IPA:/j/ | 𐨭 ś IPA:/ɕ/ | ||
| Retroflex | 𐨚 ṭ IPA:/ʈ/ | 𐨛 ṭh | 𐨜 ḍ IPA:/ɖ/ | 𐨝 ḍh | 𐨞 ṇ IPA:/ɳ/ | 𐨪 r IPA:/r/ | 𐨮 ṣ IPA:/ʂ/ | |
| Dental | 𐨟 t IPA:/t/ | 𐨠 th | 𐨡 d IPA:/d/ | 𐨢 dh | 𐨣 n IPA:/n/ | 𐨫 l | 𐨯 s | 𐨰 z |
| Labial | 𐨤 p IPA:/p/ | 𐨥 ph | 𐨦 b IPA:/b/ | 𐨧 bh | 𐨨 m IPA:/m/ | 𐨬 v | ||
| Other | 𐨲 ḱ | 𐨳 ṭ́h | ||||||
A bar above a consonant⟨𐨸⟩ can be used to indicate various modified pronunciations depending on the consonant, such as nasalization or aspiration. It is used with k, ṣ, g, c, j, n, m, ś, ṣ, s, and h.
Thecauda⟨𐨹⟩ changes how consonants are pronounced in various ways, particularlyfricativization. It is used with g, j, ḍ, t, d, p, y, v, ś, and s.
The dot below⟨𐨺⟩ is used with m and h, but its precise phonetic function is unknown.
Kharosthi includes only one standalone vowel character, which is used for initial vowels in words.[citation needed] Other initial vowels use thea character modified by diacritics. Each syllable includes the short /a/ sound by default[citation needed], with other vowels being indicated by diacritic marks.
Long vowels are marked with the diacritic⟨𐨌⟩. Ananusvara⟨𐨎⟩ indicatesnasalization of the vowel or a nasal segment following the vowel. Avisarga⟨𐨏⟩ indicates the unvoiced syllable-final /h/. It can also be used as a vowel length marker. A further diacritic, thedouble ring below⟨𐨍⟩ appears with vowels -a and -u in some Central Asian documents, but its precise phonetic function is unknown.[20]
Salomon has established that the vowel order is /a e i o u/, akin to Semitic scripts, rather than the usual vowel order for Indic scripts /a i u e o/.
| Vowels | Other syllable diacritics | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| diacritics | ◌ | ◌𐨅 | ◌𐨁 | ◌𐨆 | ◌𐨂 | ◌𐨃 | 𐨎 | 𐨏 | |
| short vowels | 𐨀 IPA:/ə/ a | 𐨀𐨅 IPA:/e/ e[b] | 𐨀𐨁 IPA:/i/ i[b] | 𐨀𐨆 IPA:/o/ o | 𐨀𐨂 IPA:/u/ u | 𐨀𐨃 IPA:/r̩/ r̥ | 𐨀𐨎 aṃ | 𐨀𐨏 aḥ | |
| long vowels | 𐨀𐨌 IPA:/aː/ ā | 𐨀𐨅𐨌 IPA:/ɐi̯/ ai | 𐨀𐨁𐨌 IPA:/iː/ ī | 𐨀𐨆𐨌 IPA:/ɐu̯/ au | 𐨀𐨂𐨌 IPA:/uː/ ū | 𐨀𐨃𐨌 IPA:/r̩ː/ r̥̄ | 𐨀𐨌𐨎 āṃ | 𐨀𐨌𐨏 āḥ | |
| examples with⟨𐨤⟩ | 𐨤 pa | 𐨤𐨅 pe[c] | 𐨤𐨁 pi[d] | 𐨤𐨆 po[e] | 𐨤𐨂 pu | 𐨤𐨃 pr̥ | 𐨤𐨎 paṃ | 𐨤𐨏 paḥ | |
| examples with⟨𐨨⟩ | 𐨨 ma | 𐨨𐨅 me | 𐨨𐨁 mi | 𐨨𐨆 mo | 𐨨𐨂 mu[f] | 𐨨𐨃 mr̥ | 𐨨𐨎 maṃ | 𐨨𐨏 maḥ | |
Nine Kharosthi punctuation marks have been identified:[18]
𐩐 dot | 𐩓 crescent bar | 𐩖 danda | 𐩑 small circle | 𐩔 mangalam | 𐩗 double danda | 𐩒 circle | 𐩕 lotus | 𐩘 lines |
Kharosthi included a set of numerals that are reminiscent ofRoman numerals andPsalter Pahlavi Numerals.[citation needed] The system is based on an additive and a multiplicative principle, but does not have the subtractive feature used in the Roman numeral system.[21]
𐩀 1 | 𐩁 2 | 𐩂 3 | 𐩃 4 | 𐩄 10 | 𐩅 20 | 𐩆 100 | 𐩇 1000 |
The numerals, like the letters, are written from right to left. There is no zero and no separate signs for the digits 5–9. Numbers are written additively, so, for example, the number 1996 would be written as𐩇𐩃𐩃𐩀𐩆𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩄𐩃𐩁.
𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩄𐩃𐩁
(2+4+10+20+20+20+20) +
𐩃𐩃𐩀𐩆
100x(1+4+4) +
𐩇
1000
𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩅𐩄𐩃𐩁 𐩃𐩃𐩀𐩆 𐩇
(2+4+10+20+20+20+20) + 100x(1+4+4) + 1000
Kharosthi was added to theUnicode Standard in March 2005 with the release of version 4.1.
The Unicode block for Kharosthi is U+10A00–U+10A5F:
| Kharoshthi[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10A0x | 𐨀 | 𐨁 | 𐨂 | 𐨃 | 𐨅 | 𐨆 | 𐨌 | 𐨍 | 𐨎 | 𐨏 | ||||||
| U+10A1x | 𐨐 | 𐨑 | 𐨒 | 𐨓 | 𐨕 | 𐨖 | 𐨗 | 𐨙 | 𐨚 | 𐨛 | 𐨜 | 𐨝 | 𐨞 | 𐨟 | ||
| U+10A2x | 𐨠 | 𐨡 | 𐨢 | 𐨣 | 𐨤 | 𐨥 | 𐨦 | 𐨧 | 𐨨 | 𐨩 | 𐨪 | 𐨫 | 𐨬 | 𐨭 | 𐨮 | 𐨯 |
| U+10A3x | 𐨰 | 𐨱 | 𐨲 | 𐨳 | 𐨴 | 𐨵 | 𐨸 | 𐨹 | 𐨺 | 𐨿 | ||||||
| U+10A4x | 𐩀 | 𐩁 | 𐩂 | 𐩃 | 𐩄 | 𐩅 | 𐩆 | 𐩇 | 𐩈 | |||||||
| U+10A5x | 𐩐 | 𐩑 | 𐩒 | 𐩓 | 𐩔 | 𐩕 | 𐩖 | 𐩗 | 𐩘 | |||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
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…Subsequent studies have confirmed that these and other similar materials that were discovered in the following years date from between the first century BCE and the third century CE…
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