Brahmic scripts

The Brahmic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, including Japan in the form of Siddhaṃ. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order (gojūon) of Japanese kana.[1]

Not to be confused with the Brahmi script.

History

Brahmic scripts descended from the Brahmi script. Brahmi is clearly attested from the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka, who used the script for imperial edicts, but there are some claims of earlier epigraphy found on pottery in South India and Sri Lanka. The most reliable of these were short Brahmi inscriptions dated to the 4th century BC and published by Coningham et al. (1996).[2] Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta period, which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the medieval period. Notable examples of such medieval scripts, developed by the 7th or 8th century, include Nagari, Siddham and Sharada.

The Siddhaṃ script was especially important in Buddhism, as many sutras were written in it. The art of Siddham calligraphy survives today in Japan. The syllabic nature and dictionary order of the modern kana system of Japanese writing is believed to be descended from the Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism.[3]

Southern Brahmi evolved into Old Kannada, Pallava and Vatteluttu scripts, which in turn diversified into other scripts of South India and Southeast Asia.

Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BCE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script or "Kannada-Telugu script" or Kadamba script, also known as "Old Telugu script", owing to its similarity to the same.[4][5]

• 
  A fragment of Ashoka's 6th pillar edict, in Brahmi, the ancestor of all Brahmic scripts
• 
  Spread of Brahmic family of scripts from India

Characteristics

Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all the scripts, are:

• Each consonant has an inherent vowel which is usually a short 'a' (in Bengali, Assamese and Oriya it is a short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark, known in Sanskrit as a virama/halant, can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
• Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not attached to a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
• Consonants (up to 4 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligatures. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
• Nasalization and aspiration of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
• The alphabetical order is: vowels, velar consonants, palatal consonants, retroflex consonants, dental consonants, bilabial consonants, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four stops (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasal consonant.

Comparison

Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts, organised on the principle that glyphs in the same column all derive from the same Brahmi glyph. Accordingly:

• The charts are not comprehensive. Glyphs may be unrepresented if they don't derive from any Brahmi character, but are later inventions.
• The pronunciations of glyphs in the same column may not be identical. The pronunciation row is only representative; the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation is given for Sanskrit where possible, or another language if necessary.

The transliteration is indicated in ISO 15919.

Consonants

ISO[lower-alpha 1]	ka	kha	ga	gha	ṅa	ca	cha	ja	jha	ña	ṭa	ṭha	ḍa	ḍha	ṇa	ta	tha	da	dha	na	ṉa	pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	ya	ra	ṟa	la	ḷa	ḻa	va	śa	ṣa	sa	ha
Assamese	ক	খ	গ	ঘ	ঙ	চ	ছ	জ	ঝ	ঞ	ট	ঠ	ড	ঢ	ণ	ত	থ	দ	ধ	ন		প	ফ	ব	ভ	ম	য	ৰ		ল			ৱ	শ	ষ	স	হ
Bengali	ক	খ	গ	ঘ	ঙ	চ	ছ	জ	ঝ	ঞ	ট	ঠ	ড	ঢ	ণ	ত	থ	দ	ধ	ন		প	ফ	ব	ভ	ম	য	র		ল				শ	ষ	স	হ
Sylheti	ꠇ	ꠈ	ꠉ	ꠊ	ꠋ	ꠌ	ꠍ	ꠎ	ꠏ		ꠐ	ꠑ	ꠒ	ꠓ		ꠔ	ꠕ	ꠖ	ꠗ	ꠘ		ꠙ	ꠚ	ꠛ	ꠜ	ꠝ		ꠞ		ꠟ				ꠡ			ꠢ
Devanagari	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ	ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण	त	थ	द	ध	न	ऩ	प	फ	ब	भ	म	य	र	ऱ	ल	ळ	ऴ	व	श	ष	स	ह
Gujarati	ક	ખ	ગ	ઘ	ઙ	ચ	છ	જ	ઝ	ઞ	ટ	ઠ	ડ	ઢ	ણ	ત	થ	દ	ધ	ન		પ	ફ	બ	ભ	મ	ય	ર		લ	ળ		વ	શ	ષ	સ	હ
Odia	କ	ଖ	ଗ	ଘ	ଙ	ଚ	ଛ	ଜ	ଝ	ଞ	ଟ	ଠ	ଡ	ଢ	ଣ	ତ	ଥ	ଦ	ଧ	ନ		ପ	ଫ	ବ	ଭ	ମ	ୟ	ର		ଲ	ଳ		ୱ	ଶ	ଷ	ସ	ହ
Gurmukhi	ਕ	ਖ	ਗ	ਘ	ਙ	ਚ	ਛ	ਜ	ਝ	ਞ	ਟ	ਠ	ਡ	ਢ	ਣ	ਤ	ਥ	ਦ	ਧ	ਨ		ਪ	ਫ	ਬ	ਭ	ਮ	ਯ	ਰ		ਲ	ਲ਼		ਵ	ਸ਼		ਸ	ਹ
Tibetan	ཀ	ཁ	ག		ང	ཅ	ཆ	ཇ		ཉ	(derived)					ཏ	ཐ	ད		ན		པ	ཕ	བ		མ	ཡ	ར		ལ			ཝ	ཤ	ཥ	ས	ཧ
Tirhuta	𑒏	𑒐	𑒑	𑒒	𑒓	𑒔	𑒕	𑒖	𑒗	𑒘	𑒙	𑒚	𑒛	𑒜	𑒝	𑒞	𑒟	𑒠	𑒡	𑒢		𑒣	𑒤	𑒥	𑒦	𑒧	𑒨	𑒩		𑒪				𑒬	𑒭	𑒮	𑒯
Early Brahmi	𑀓	𑀔	𑀕	𑀖	𑀗	𑀘	𑀙	𑀚	𑀛	𑀜	𑀝	𑀞	𑀟	𑀠	𑀡	𑀢	𑀣	𑀤	𑀥	𑀦		𑀧	𑀨	𑀩	𑀪	𑀫	𑀬	𑀭		𑀮	𑀴		𑀯	𑀰	𑀱	𑀲	𑀳
Middle Brahmi																															𑀴
Late Brahmi																															𑀴
Telugu	క	ఖ	గ	ఘ	ఙ	చ	ఛ	జ	ఝ	ఞ	ట	ఠ	డ	ఢ	ణ	త	థ	ద	ధ	న		ప	ఫ	బ	భ	మ	య	ర	ఱ	ల	ళ	ೞ	వ	శ	ష	స	హ
Kannada	ಕ	ಖ	ಗ	ಘ	ಙ	ಚ	ಛ	ಜ	ಝ	ಞ	ಟ	ಠ	ಡ	ಢ	ಣ	ತ	ಥ	ದ	ಧ	ನ		ಪ	ಫ	ಬ	ಭ	ಮ	ಯ	ರ	ಱ	ಲ	ಳ	ೞ	ವ	ಶ	ಷ	ಸ	ಹ
Sinhala	ක	ඛ	ග	ඝ	ඞ	ච	ඡ	ජ	ඣ	ඤ	ට	ඨ	ඩ	ඪ	ණ	ත	ථ	ද	ධ	න		ප	ඵ	බ	භ	ම	ය	ර		ල	ළ		ව	ශ	ෂ	ස	හ
Malayalam	ക	ഖ	ഗ	ഘ	ങ	ച	ഛ	ജ	ഝ	ഞ	ട	ഠ	ഡ	ഢ	ണ	ത	ഥ	ദ	ധ	ന	ഩ	പ	ഫ	ബ	ഭ	മ	യ	ര	റ	ല	ള	ഴ	വ	ശ	ഷ	സ	ഹ
Tamil	க				ங	ச		ஜ		ஞ	ட				ண	த				ந	ன	ப				ம	ய	ர	ற	ல	ள	ழ	வ	ஶ	ஷ	ஸ	ஹ
Burmese	က	ခ	ဂ	ဃ	င	စ	ဆ	ဇ	ဈ	ဉ / ည	ဋ	ဌ	ဍ	ဎ	ဏ	တ	ထ	ဒ	ဓ	န		ပ	ဖ	ဗ	ဘ	မ	ယ	ရ		လ	ဠ	ၔ	ဝ	ၐ	ၑ	သ	ဟ
Khmer	ក	ខ	គ	ឃ	ង	ច	ឆ	ជ	ឈ	ញ	ដ	ឋ	ឌ	ឍ	ណ	ត	ថ	ទ	ធ	ន		ប	ផ	ព	ភ	ម	យ	រ		ល	ឡ		វ	ឝ	ឞ	ស	ហ
Thai	ก	ข,ฃ[lower-alpha 2]	ค,ฅ[lower-alpha 2]	ฆ	ง	จ	ฉ	ช,ซ[lower-alpha 2]	ฌ	ญ	ฎ,[lower-alpha 2]ฏ	ฐ	ฑ	ฒ	ณ	ด,[lower-alpha 2]ต	ถ	ท	ธ	น		บ,[lower-alpha 2]ป	ผ,ฝ[lower-alpha 2]	พ,ฟ[lower-alpha 2]	ภ	ม	ย	ร		ล	ฬ		ว	ศ	ษ	ส	ห,ฮ[lower-alpha 2]
Lao	ກ	ຂ	ຄ		ງ	ຈ		ຊ								ຕ	ຖ	ທ		ນ		ປ	ຜ	ພ		ມ	ຍ	ຣ		ລ			ວ			ສ	ຫ
Balinese	ᬓ	ᬔ	ᬕ	ᬖ	ᬗ	ᬘ	ᬙ	ᬚ	ᬛ	ᬜ	ᬝ	ᬞ	ᬟ	ᬠ	ᬡ	ᬢ	ᬣ	ᬤ	ᬥ	ᬦ		ᬧ	ᬨ	ᬩ	ᬪ	ᬫ	ᬬ	ᬭ		ᬮ			ᬯ	ᬰ	ᬱ	ᬲ	ᬳ
Javanese[lower-alpha 3]	ꦏ	ꦑ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦒ	ꦓ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦔ	ꦕ	ꦖ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦗ	ꦙ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦚ	ꦛ	ꦜ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦝ	ꦞ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦟ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦠ	ꦡ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦢ	ꦣ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦤ	ꦘ	ꦥ	ꦦ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦧ	ꦨ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦩ	ꦪ	ꦫ		ꦭ			ꦮ	ꦯ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦰ[lower-alpha 3]	ꦱ	ꦲ
Sundanese	ᮊ		ᮌ		ᮍ	ᮎ		ᮏ		ᮑ						ᮒ		ᮓ		ᮔ		ᮕ		ᮘ		ᮙ	ᮚ	ᮛ		ᮜ			ᮝ			ᮞ	ᮠ
Lontara	ᨀ		ᨁ		ᨂ	ᨌ		ᨍ		ᨎ						ᨈ		ᨉ		ᨊ		ᨄ		ᨅ		ᨆ	ᨐ	ᨑ		ᨒ			ᨓ			ᨔ	ᨕ
Batak (Toba)	ᯂ		ᯎ		ᯝ			ᯐ		ᯠ/ᯛ						ᯖ		ᯑ		ᯉ		ᯇ		ᯅ		ᯔ		ᯒ		ᯞ			ᯞ			ᯘ	ᯂ
Baybayin	ᜃ		ᜄ		ᜅ											ᜆ		ᜇ		ᜈ		ᜉ		ᜊ		ᜋ	ᜌ	ᜇ		ᜎ			ᜏ			ᜐ	ᜑ
ISO	ka	kha	ga	gha	ṅa	ca	cha	ja	jha	ña	ṭa	ṭha	ḍa	ḍha	ṇa	ta	tha	da	dha	na	ṉa	pa	pha	ba	bha	ma	ya	ra	ṟa	la	ḷa	ḻa	va	śa	ṣa	sa	ha

Notes

1. This list (tries to) includes characters of same origins, not same sounds. In Bengali র is pronounced as rô but it is originally va which is still used for wa sound in Mithilakshar and modern Assamese ৱ (wabbô) was derived from middle Assamese র (wô). Compare with জ (ja) য (ya) and য় (ẏ) which are pronounced as jô, jô and yô in Bengali and zô, zô and yô in Assamese respectively. য is related to Devanagari य (ya) and it is still pronounced as "ya" in Mithilakshar. Since their sounds shifted, the dots were added to keep the original sounds.
2. Modified forms of these letters are used for, but are not restricted to, Sanskrit and Pali in the Thai script.
3. Letters used in Old Javanese. They are now obsolete, but are used for honorifics in contemporary Javanese.

Vowels

Vowels are presented in their independent form on the left of each column, and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant k on the right. A glyph for ka is an independent consonant letter itself without any vowel sign, where the vowel a is inherent.

ISO	a		ā		æ		ɒ		i		ī		u		ū		e		ē		ai		o		ō		au		r̥		r̥̄[lower-alpha 1]		l̥[lower-alpha 1]		l̥̄[lower-alpha 1]		ṁ		ḥ
	a	ka	ā	kā	æ	kæ	ɒ	kɒ	i	ki	ī	kī	u	ku	ū	kū	e	ke	ē	kē	ai	kai	o	ko	ō	kō	au	kau	r̥	kr̥	r̥̄	kr̥̄	l̥	kl̥	l̥̄	kl̥̄	ṁ	kṁ	ḥ	kḥ	k
Assamese	অ	ক	আ	কা	অ্যা	ক্যা			ই	কি	ঈ	কী	উ	কু	ঊ	কূ			এ	কে	ঐ	কৈ	অৗ	কৗ	ও	কো	ঔ	কৌ	ঋ	কৃ	ৠ	কৄ	ঌ	কৢ	ৡ	কৣ	অং	কং	অঃ	কঃ	ক্,ক্‍
Bengali	অ	ক	আ	কা	অ্যা	ক্যা			ই	কি	ঈ	কী	উ	কু	ঊ	কূ			এ	কে	ঐ	কৈ	অ	ক	ও	কো	ঔ	কৌ	ঋ	কৃ	ৠ	কৄ	ঌ	কৢ	ৡ	কৣ	অং	কং	অঃ	কঃ	ক্,ক্‍
Devanagari	अ	क	आ	का	ॲ	कॅ	ऑ	कॉ	इ	कि	ई	की	उ	कु	ऊ	कू	ऎ	कॆ	ए	के	ऐ	कै	ऒ	कॊ	ओ	को	औ	कौ	ऋ	कृ	ॠ	कॄ	ऌ	कॢ	ॡ	कॣ	अं	कं	अः	कः	क्,क्‍
Gujarati	અ	ક	આ	કા					ઇ	કિ	ઈ	કી	ઉ	કુ	ઊ	કૂ			એ	કે	ઐ	કૈ			ઓ	કો	ઔ	કૌ	ઋ	કૃ	ૠ	કૄ	ઌ	કૢ	ૡ	કૣ	અં	કં	અઃ	કઃ	ક્,ક્‍
Odia	ଅ	କ	ଆ	କା	ଅଽ	କଽ			ଇ	କି	ଈ	କୀ	ଉ	କୁ	ଊ	କୂ			ଏ	କେ	ଐ	କୈ			ଓ	କୋ	ଔ	କୌ	ଋ	କୃ	ୠ	କୄ	ଌ	କୢ	ୡ	କୣ	ଂ	କଂ	ଃ	କଃ	କ୍
Gurmukhi	ਅ	ਕ	ਆ	ਕਾ					ਇ	ਕਿ	ਈ	ਕੀ	ਉ	ਕੁ	ਊ	ਕੂ			ਏ	ਕੇ	ਐ	ਕੈ			ਓ	ਕੋ	ਔ	ਕੌ									ਅਂ	ਕਂ	ਅਃ	ਕਃ	ਕ੍
Tibetan	ཨ	ཀ	ཨཱ	ཀཱ					ཨི	ཀི	ཨཱི	ཀཱི	ཨུ	ཀུ	ཨཱུ	ཀཱུ			ཨེ	ཀེ	ཨཻ	ཀཻ			ཨོ	ཀོ	ཨཽ	ཀཽ	རྀ	ཀྲྀ	རཱྀ	ཀཷ	ལྀ	ཀླྀ	ལཱྀ	ཀླཱྀ	ཨཾ	ཀཾ	ཨཿ	ཀཿ	ཀ྄
Tirhuta	𑒁	𑒏	𑒂	𑒏𑒰					𑒃	𑒏𑒱	𑒄	𑒏𑒲	𑒅	𑒏𑒳	𑒆	𑒏𑒴		𑒏𑒺	𑒋	𑒏𑒹	𑒌	𑒏𑒻		𑒏𑒽	𑒍	𑒏𑒼	𑒎	𑒏𑒾	𑒇	𑒏𑒵	𑒈	𑒏𑒶	𑒉	𑒏𑒷	𑒊	𑒏𑒸	𑒁𑓀	𑒏𑓀	𑒁𑓁	𑒏𑓁	𑒏𑓂
Sylheti	ꠀ	ꠇꠣ							ꠁ	ꠇꠤ			ꠃ	ꠇꠥ			ꠄ	ꠇꠦ					ꠅ	ꠇ		ꠇꠧ											ꠀꠋ	ꠇꠋ			ꠇ꠆
Brahmi	𑀅	𑀓	𑀆	𑀓𑀸					𑀇	𑀓𑀺	𑀈	𑀓𑀻	𑀉	𑀓𑀼	𑀊	𑀓𑀽			𑀏	𑀓𑁂	𑀐	𑀓𑁃			𑀑	𑀓𑁄	𑀒	𑀓𑁅	𑀋	𑀓𑀾	𑀌	𑀓𑀿	𑀍	𑀓𑁀	𑀎	𑀓𑁁	𑀅𑀂	𑀓𑀂	𑀅𑀃	𑀓𑀃	𑀓𑁆
Telugu	అ	క	ఆ	కా					ఇ	కి	ఈ	కీ	ఉ	కు	ఊ	కూ	ఎ	కె	ఏ	కే	ఐ	కై	ఒ	కొ	ఓ	కో	ఔ	కౌ	ఋ	కృ	ౠ	కౄ	ఌ	కౢ	ౡ	కౣ	అం	కం	అః	కః	క్
Kannada	ಅ	ಕ	ಆ	ಕಾ					ಇ	ಕಿ	ಈ	ಕೀ	ಉ	ಕು	ಊ	ಕೂ	ಎ	ಕೆ	ಏ	ಕೇ	ಐ	ಕೈ	ಒ	ಕೊ	ಓ	ಕೋ	ಔ	ಕೌ	ಋ	ಕೃ	ೠ	ಕೄ	ಌ	ಕೢ	ೡ	ಕೣ	అం	ಕಂ	అః	ಕಃ	ಕ್
Sinhala	අ	ක	ආ	කා	ඇ	කැ	ඈ	කෑ	ඉ	කි	ඊ	කී	උ	කු	ඌ	කූ	එ	කෙ	ඒ	කේ	ඓ	කෛ	ඔ	කො	ඕ	කෝ	ඖ	කෞ	සෘ	කෘ	සෲ	කෲ	ඏ	කෟ	ඐ	කෳ	අං	කං	අඃ	කඃ	ක්
Malayalam	അ	ക	ആ	കാ					ഇ	കി	ഈ	കീ	ഉ	കു	ഊ	കൂ	എ	കെ	ഏ	കേ	ഐ	കൈ	ഒ	കൊ	ഓ	കോ	ഔ	കൗ	ഋ	കൃ	ൠ	കൄ	ഌ	കൢ	ൡ	കൣ	അം	കം	അഃ	കഃ	ക്,ക്‍
Tamil	அ	க	ஆ	கா					இ	கி	ஈ	கீ	உ	கு	ஊ	கூ	எ	கெ	ஏ	கே	ஐ	கை	ஒ	கொ	ஓ	கோ	ஔ	கௌ									அஂ	கஂ	அஃ	கஃ	க்
Burmese	အ	က	အာ	ကာ					ဣ	ကိ	ဤ	ကီ	ဥ	ကု	ဦ	ကူ	ဧ	ကေ	အေး	ကေး			ဩ	ကော			ဪ	ကော်	ၒ	ကၖ	ၓ	ကၗ	ၔ	ကၘ	ၕ	ကၙ	အံ	ကံ	အး	ကး	က်
Khmer[lower-alpha 2]	អ	ក	អា	កា					ឥ	កិ	ឦ	កី	ឧ	កុ	ឩ	កូ			ឯ	កេ	ឰ	កៃ			ឱ	កោ	ឳ	កៅ	ឫ	ក្ឫ	ឬ	ក្ឬ	ឭ	ក្ឭ	ឮ	ក្ឮ	អំ	កំ	អះ	កះ	ក៑
Thai[lower-alpha 3]	อ (อะ)	ก (กะ)	อา	กา	แอ	แก	(ออ)	(กอ)	อิ	กิ	อี	กี	อุ	กุ	อู	กู	(เอะ)	(เกะ)	เอ	เก	ไอ	ไก	(โอะ)	(โกะ)	โ	โก	เอา	เกา	ฤ	กฺฤ	ฤๅ	กฺฤๅ	ฦ	กฺฦ	ฦๅ	กฺฦๅ	อํ	กํ	อะ (อะฮฺ)	กะ (กะฮฺ)	กฺ (ก/ก์)
Lao[lower-alpha 3]		ກະ,ກັ		ກາ						ກິ		ກີ		ກຸ		ກູ				ເກ		ໄກ/ໃກ				ໂກ		ເກົາ/ກາວ									ອํ	ກํ	ອະ	ກະ	ກ
Balinese	ᬅ	ᬓ	ᬆ	ᬓᬵ					ᬇ	ᬓᬶ	ᬈ	ᬓᬷ	ᬉ	ᬓᬸ	ᬊ	ᬓᬹ	ᬏ	ᬓᬾ			ᬐ	ᬓᬿ	ᬑ	ᬓᭀ			ᬒ	ᬓᭁ	ᬋ	ᬓᬺ	ᬌ	ᬓᬻ	ᬍ	ᬓᬼ	ᬎ	ᬓᬽ	ᬅᬂ	ᬓᬂ	ᬅᬄ	ᬓᬄ	ᬓ᭄
Javanese	ꦄ	ꦏ	ꦄꦴ	ꦏꦴ					ꦆ	ꦏꦶ	ꦇ	ꦏꦷ	ꦈ	ꦏꦸ	ꦈꦴ	ꦏꦹ	ꦌ	ꦏꦺ			ꦍ	ꦏꦻ	ꦎ	ꦏꦺꦴ			ꦎꦴ	ꦏꦻꦴ	ꦉ	ꦏꦽ	ꦉꦴ	ꦏꦽꦴ	ꦊ	ꦏ꧀ꦭꦼ	ꦋ	ꦏ꧀ꦭꦼꦴ	ꦄꦁ	ꦏꦁ	ꦄꦃ	ꦏꦃ	ꦏ꧀
Sundanese	ᮃ	ᮊ							ᮄ	ᮊᮤ			ᮅ	ᮊᮥ			ᮈ	ᮊᮦ					ᮇ	ᮊᮧ													ᮃᮀ	ᮊᮀ	ᮃᮂ	ᮊᮂ	ᮊ᮪
Lontara		ᨕ								ᨕᨗ				ᨕᨘ				ᨕᨙ						ᨕᨚ
Batak (Toba)	ᯀ	ᯂ							ᯤ	ᯂᯪ			ᯥ	ᯂᯮ				ᯂᯩ						ᯂᯬ													ᯀᯰ	ᯂᯰ	ᯀᯱ	ᯂᯱ	ᯂ᯲
Baybayin	ᜀ	ᜃ							ᜁ	ᜃᜒ			ᜂ	ᜃᜓ			ᜁ	ᜃᜒ					ᜂ	ᜃᜓ																	ᜃ᜔
ISO	a	ka	ā	kā	æ	kæ	ɒ	kɒ	i	ki	ī	kī	u	ku	ū	kū	e	ke	ē	kē	ai	kai	o	ko	ō	kō	au	kau	r̥	kr̥	r̥̄	kr̥̄	l̥	kl̥	l̥̄	kl̥̄	ṁ	kṁ	ḥ	kḥ	k
	a		ā		æ		ɒ		i		ī		u		ū		e		ē		ai		o		ō		au		r̥		r̥̄		l̥		l̥̄		ṁ		ḥ

Notes

1. Letters for r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ and a few others are obsolete or very rarely used.
2. When used to write their own languages, Khmer can have either an a or an o as the inherent vowel, following the rules of its orthography.
3. Thai and Lao scripts do not have independent vowel forms, for syllables starting with a vowel sound, a "zero" consonant, อ and ອ, respectively, to represent the glottal stop /ʔ/.

Numerals

Hindu-Arabic	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Assamese	০	১	২	৩	৪	৫	৬	৭	৮	৯
Bengali	০	১	২	৩	৪	৫	৬	৭	৮	৯
Devanagari	०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
Gujarati	૦	૧	૨	૩	૪	૫	૬	૭	૮	૯
Odia	୦	୧	୨	୩	୪	୫	୬	୭	୮	୯
Gurmukhi	੦	੧	੨	੩	੪	੫	੬	੭	੮	੯
Tibetan	༠	༡	༢	༣	༤	༥	༦	༧	༨	༩
Tirhuta	𑓐	𑓑	𑓒	𑓓	𑓔	𑓕	𑓖	𑓗	𑓘	𑓙
Brahmi numbers		𑁒	𑁓	𑁔	𑁕	𑁖	𑁗	𑁘	𑁙	𑁚
Brahmi digits	𑁦	𑁧	𑁨	𑁩	𑁪	𑁫	𑁬	𑁭	𑁮	𑁯
Telugu	౦	౧	౨	౩	౪	౫	౬	౭	౮	౯
Kannada	೦	೧	೨	೩	೪	೫	೬	೭	೮	೯
Sinhala	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Sinhala astrological numbers	෦	෧	෨	෩	෪	෫	෬	෭	෮	෯
Malayalam	൦	൧	൨	൩	൪	൫	൬	൭	൮	൯
Tamil	೦	௧	௨	௩	௪	௫	௬	௭	௮	௯
Burmese	၀	၁	၂	၃	၄	၅	၆	၇	၈	၉
Khmer	០	១	២	៣	៤	៥	៦	៧	៨	៩
Thai	๐	๑	๒	๓	๔	๕	๖	๗	๘	๙
Lao	໐	໑	໒	໓	໔	໕	໖	໗	໘	໙
Balinese	᭐	᭑	᭒	᭓	᭔	᭕	᭖	᭗	᭘	᭙
Javanese	꧐	꧑	꧒	꧓	꧔	꧕	꧖	꧗	꧘	꧙
Sundanese	᮰	᮱	᮲	᮳	᮴	᮵	᮶	᮷	᮸	᮹
Ahom	𑜰	𑜱	𑜲	𑜳	𑜴	𑜵	𑜶	𑜷	𑜸	𑜹
Meitei (Manipuri)	꯰	꯱	꯲	꯳	꯴	꯵	꯶	꯷	꯸	꯹
Hindu-Arabic	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

List of Brahmic scripts

Historical

Early Brahmic scripts
IAST	Ashoka	Girnar	Chandra -gupta	Gujarat	Allahabad	Narbada	Kistna
a
ā
i
ī
u
ū
ṛ
e
ai
o
au
k
kh
g
gh
ṅ
c
ch
j
jh
ñ
ṭ
ṭh
ḍ
ḍh
ṇ
t
th
d
dh
n
p
ph
b
bh
m
y
r
l
v
ś
ṣ
s
h

Indo-Aryan languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except dark blue- colored Khowar, Pashai, Kohistani, and Urdu- not marked here, which use Arabic derived scripts).

Dravidian languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except Brahui which uses Arabic derived script).

The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BC. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century AD and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Vatteluttu and Old-Kannada/Pallava scripts with the spread of Buddhism sent Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.

Northern Brahmic

• Tocharian script ("Slanting Brahmi"), 7th century
• Kalinga script
• Gupta script, 4th century
  • Sharada, 8th century
    • Landa, 10th century
      • Gurmukhi, 14th century
      • Khojki, 16th century
      • Khudabadi, 1550s
      • Mahajani
      • Multani
    • Takri
  • Siddham, late 6th century
    • Nagari, 7th century
      • Devanagari, 10th century
        • Modi, 12th century
        • Gujarati, 16th century
        • Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, 19th century
      • Nandinagari, 8th century
      • Kaithi, 16th century
        • Sylheti Nagari, 16th century
    • Bengali–Assamese script, 12th century
      • Anga Lipi
      • Assamese script, 13th century
      • Bengali script
    • Tirhuta/Mithilakshar, 14th century
    • Odia, 14th century
  • Tibetan script, 7th century
    • Lepcha alphabet
      • Limbu alphabet
    • 'Phags-pa, 13th century
      • Zanabazar square script
  • Bhaiksuki
  • Nepal script
    • Bhujimol, 6th century
    • Ranjana, 12th century
      • Soyombo, 17th century
    • Prachalit
• ? Meeitei Mayek

Southern Brahmic

• Tamil-Brahmi
  • Pallava script
    • Tamil script
    • Grantha script
      • Malayalam script
      • Tigalari script
      • Dhives Akuru
        • Thaana
      • Saurashtra script
    • Khmer script
      • Lao script
      • Thai script
        • Tai Viet
    • Cham script
    • Kawi script
      • Balinese script
      • Batak script
      • Javanese script
      • Sundanese script
      • Lontara script
      • Makasar script
      • Lampung script
      • Rencong script
      • Rejang script
      • ? Baybayin
        • Buhid script
        • Hanunó'o script
        • Tagbanwa script
    • Old Mon script
  • Vatteluttu
    • Kolezhuthu
    • Malayanma
• Sinhala script
• Bhattiprolu script
  • Kadamba, 5th century
    • Telugu-Kannada alphabet, 7th century
      • Kannada alphabet, 14th century
        • Goykanadi
      • Telugu script, 14th century
    • Pyu script
      • Burmese alphabet
        • Ahom script
        • Chakma script
        • S'gaw Karen alphabet
        • Shan alphabet
          • Lik-Tai
        • Mon script
          • Tai Le script
          • Tai Tham script
            • New Tai Lue alphabet

Unicode

As of Unicode version 13.0, the following Brahmic scripts have been encoded:

script	derivation	period of derivation	usage notes	ISO 15924	Unicode range(s)	sample
Ahom	Old Burmese script[6]	13th century	Extinct Ahom language	Ahom	U+11700–U+1173F	𑜒𑜠𑜑𑜨𑜉
Balinese	Old Kawi	11th century	Balinese language	Bali	U+1B00–U+1B7F	ᬅᬓ᭄ᬲᬭᬩᬮᬶ
Batak	Pallava grantha	14th century	Batak languages	Batk	U+1BC0–U+1BFF	ᯘᯮᯒᯖ᯲ ᯅᯖᯂ᯲
Baybayin	Old Kawi	14th century	Tagalog, other Philippine languages	Tglg	U+1700–U+171F	ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔
Bengali-Assamese	Siddham	11th century	Assamese language (Assamese script variant), Bengali language (Bengali script variant), Bishnupriya Manipuri, Maithili, Angika	Beng	U+0980–U+09FF	অসমীয়া লিপি বাংলা লিপি
Bhaiksuki	Gupta		Was used around the turn of the first millennium for writing Sanskrit	Bhks	U+11C00–U+11C6F
Buhid	Old Kawi	14th century	Buhid language	Buhd	U+1740–U+175F	ᝊᝓᝑᝒᝇ
Burmese	Pallava grantha	11th century	Burmese language, numerous modifications for other languages including Chakma, Eastern and Western Pwo Karen, Geba Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rumai Palaung, S’gaw Karen, Shan	Mymr	U+1000–U+109F, U+A9E0–U+A9FF, U+AA60–U+AA7F	မြန်မာအက္ခရာ
Chakma	Pallava grantha	8th century	Chakma language	Cakm	U+11100–U+1114F
Cham	Pallava grantha	8th century	Cham language	Cham	U+AA00–U+AA5F	ꨌꨠ
Devanagari	Nagari	13th century	Numerous Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Sindhi and Kashmiri. Formerly used to write Gujarati. Sometimes used to write or transliterate Sherpa	Deva	U+0900–U+097F, U+A8E0–U+A8FF	देवनागरी
Dhives Akuru	Grantha		Was used to write the Maldivian language up until the 20th century.[7]	Diak	U+11900–U+1195F
Dogra			Was used to write Dogri. Dogra script is closely related to Takri.[8]	Dogr	U+11800–U+1184F
Grantha	Brahmi	6th century	Restricted use in traditional Vedic schools to write Sanskrit. Was widely used by Tamil speakers for Sanskrit and the classical language Manipravalam.	Gran	U+11300–U+1137F
Gujarati	Nagari	17th century	Gujarati language, Kutchi language	Gujr	U+0A80–U+0AFF	ગુજરાતી લિપિ
Gunjala Gondi			Used for writing the Adilabad dialect of the Gondi language.[9]	Gong	U+11D60–U+11DAF
Gurmukhi	Sharada	16th century	Punjabi language	Guru	U+0A00–U+0A7F	ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ
Hanunó'o	Old Kawi	14th century	Hanuno'o language	Hano	U+1720–U+173F	ᜱᜨᜳᜨᜳᜢ
Javanese	Old Kawi	16th century	Javanese language, Sundanese language, Madurese language	Java	U+A980–U+A9DF	ꦄꦏ꧀ꦱꦫꦗꦮ
Kaithi	Nagari	16th century	Historically used for writing legal, administrative, and private records.	Kthi	U+11080–U+110CF	𑂍𑂶𑂟𑂲
Kannada	Kadamba/Old Kannada	9th century	Kannada language, Konkani language Tulu, Badaga, Kodava, Beary others	Knda	U+0C80–U+0CFF	ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ
Khmer	Pallava grantha	11th century	Khmer language	Khmr	U+1780–U+17FF, U+19E0–U+19FF	អក្សរខ្មែរ
Khojki	Landa	16th century	Some use by Ismaili communities. Was used by the Khoja community for Muslim religious literature.	Khoj	U+11200–U+1124F
Khudawadi	Landa	1550s	Was used by Sindhi communities for correspondence and business records.	Sind	U+112B0–U+112FF
Lao	Khmer	14th century	Lao language, others	Laoo	U+0E80–U+0EFF	ອັກສອນລາວ
Lepcha	Tibetan	8th century	Lepcha language	Lepc	U+1C00–U+1C4F
Limbu	Lepcha	9th century	Limbu language	Limb	U+1900–U+194F	ᤛᤡᤖᤡᤈᤨᤅ
Lontara	Old Kawi	17th century	Buginese language, others	Bugi	U+1A00–U+1A1F	ᨒᨚᨈᨑ
Mahajani	Landa		Historically used in northern India for writing accounts and financial records.	Mahj	U+11150–U+1117F
Makasar			Was used in South Sulawesi, Indonesia for writing the Makassarese language.[10] Makasar script is also known as "Old Makassarese" or "Makassarese bird script" in English-language scholarly works.[11]	Maka	U+11EE0–U+11EFF
Malayalam	Grantha	12th century	Malayalam language	Mlym	U+0D00–U+0D7F	മലയാളലിപി
Marchen			Was used in the Tibetan Bön tradition to write the extinct Zhang-Zhung language	Marc	U+11C70–U+11CBF	𑱳𑲁𑱽𑱾𑲌𑱵𑲋𑲱𑱴𑱶𑲱𑲅𑲊𑱱
Meetei Mayek			Historically used for the Meitei language. Some modern usage.	Mtei	U+AAE0–U+AAFF, U+ABC0–U+ABFF	ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯃꯌꯦꯛ
Modi	Devanagari	17th century	Was used to write the Marathi language	Modi	U+11600–U+1165F
Multani	Landa		Was used to write the Multani language	Mult	U+11280–U+112AF
Nandinagari	Nagari	7th century	Historically used to write Sanskrit in southern India	Nand	U+119A0–U+119FF
New Tai Lue	Tai Tham	1950s	Tai Lü language	Talu	U+1980–U+19DF	ᦟᦲᧅᦎᦷᦺᦑ
Odia	Kalinga	10th century	Odia language	Orya	U+0B00–U+0B7F	ଉତ୍କଳାକ୍ଷର
'Phags-Pa	Tibetan	13th century	Historically used during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.	Phag	U+A840–U+A87F	ꡖꡍꡂꡛ ꡌ
Prachalit (Newa)	Nepal		Has been used for writing the Sanskrit, Nepali, Hindi, Bengali, and Maithili languages	Newa	U+11400–U+1147F
Rejang	Old Kawi	18th century	Rejang language, mostly obsolete	Rjng	U+A930–U+A95F	ꥆꤰ꥓ꤼꤽ ꤽꥍꤺꥏ
Saurashtra	Grantha	20th century	Saurashtra language, mostly obsolete	Saur	U+A880–U+A8DF	ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬꢵ
Sharada	Gupta	8th century	Was used for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri	Shrd	U+11180–U+111DF
Siddham	Gupta	7th century	Was used for writing Sanskrit	Sidd	U+11580–U+115FF
Sinhala	Brahmi[12]	4th century[13]	Sinhala language	Sinh	U+0D80–U+0DFF, U+111E0–U+111FF	ශුද්ධ සිංහල
Sundanese	Old Kawi	14th century	Sundanese language	Sund	U+1B80–U+1BBF, U+1CC0–U+1CCF	ᮃᮊ᮪ᮞᮛ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ
Sylheti Nagari	Nagari	16th century	Historically used for writing the Sylheti language	Sylo	U+A800–U+A82F	ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ
Tagbanwa	Old Kawi	14th century	various languages of Palawan, nearly extinct	Tagb	U+1760–U+177F	ᝦᝪᝨᝯ
Tai Le	Pallava grantha?		Tai Nüa language	Tale	U+1950–U+197F	ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ
Tai Tham	Mon Script	13th Century	Northern Thai language, Tai Lü language, Khün language	Lana	U+1A20–U+1AAF	ᨲᩫ᩠ᩅᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ
Tai Viet	Thai?	16th century	Tai Dam language	Tavt	U+AA80–U+AADF	ꪼꪕꪒꪾ
Takri	Sharada		Was used for writing Chambeali, and other languages	Takr	U+11680–U+116CF
Tamil	Chola-Pallava alphabet	5th Century CE[14]	Tamil language	Taml	U+0B80–U+0BFF, U+11FC0–U+11FFF	தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி
Telugu	Bhattiprolu script/Old Kannada	5th century	Telugu language	Telu	U+0C00–U+0C7F	తెలుగు లిపి
Thai	Khmer	13th century	Thai language	Thai	U+0E00–U+0E7F	อักษรไทย
Tibetan	Siddham	8th century	Tibetan language, Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language	Tibt	U+0F00–U+0FFF	བོད་ཡིག་
Tirhuta	Gupta		Historically used for the Maithili language	Tirh	U+11480–U+114DF	𑒞𑒱𑒩𑒯𑒳𑒞𑒰

See also

• Devanagari transliteration
  • International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
  • National Library at Kolkata romanization
• Bharati Braille, the unified braille assignments of Indian languages
• Indus script – the earliest writing system on the Indian subcontinent
• ISCII – the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts

References

1. Trautmann, Thomas R. (2006). Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras. University of California Press. pp. 65–66.
2. Coningham, R. A. E.; Allchin, F. R.; Batt, C. M.; Lucy, D. (April 1996). "Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 6 (1): 73–97. doi:10.1017/S0959774300001608.
3. "Font: Japanese". Monotype Corporation. Archived from the original on 24 March 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
4. "Telugu is 2,400 years old, says ASI". The Hindu. 29 April 2011 [December 20, 2007]. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
5. Adluri, Seshu Madhava Rao; Paruchuri, Sreenivas (February 1999). "Evolution of Telugu Character Graphs". Notes on Telugu Script. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
6. Terwiel; Khamdaengyodtai (2003). Shan Manuscripts,Part 1. p. 13.
7. Pandey, Anshuman (23 January 2018). "L2/18-016R: Proposal to encode Dives Akuru in Unicode" (PDF).
8. Pandey, Anshuman (4 November 2015). "L2/15-234R: Proposal to encode the Dogra script" (PDF).
9. "Chapter 13: South and Central Asia-II" (PDF). The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0. Mountain View, CA: Unicode, Inc. June 2018. ISBN 978-1-936213-19-1.
10. "Chapter 17: Indonesia and Oceania" (PDF). The Unicode Standard, Version 11.0. Mountain View, CA: Unicode, Inc. June 2018. ISBN 978-1-936213-19-1.
11. Pandey, Anshuman (2 November 2015). "L2/15-233: Proposal to encode the Makasar script in Unicode" (PDF).
12. Daniels (1996), p. 379.
13. Diringer, David (1948). Alphabet a key to the history of mankind. p. 389.
14. Diringer, David (1948). Alphabet a key to the history of mankind. p. 385.

External links

• Online Tool which supports Conversion between various Brahmic Scripts
• Windows Indic Script Support
• An Introduction to Indic Scripts
• South Asian Writing Systems
• Enhanced Indic Transliterator Transliterate from romanised script to Indian Languages.
• Indian Transliterator A means to transliterate from romanised to Unicode Indian scripts.
• Imperial Brahmi Font and Text-Editor
• Brahmi Script
• Xlit: Tool for Transliteration between English and Indian Languages
• Padma: Transformer for Indic Scripts – a Firefox add-on