Indic Writing Systems

Indic writing systems, writing systems that include the syllabic Kharosthi and semialphabetic Brahmi scripts of ancient India. No systems of writing subsequently developed from the Kharosthi script. Brahmi, however, is thought to be the forerunner of all of the scripts used for writing the languages of Southeast Asia, India, Indonesia, and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China (exceptions include those areas in which native writing systems have been replaced by the Latin or Arabic alphabet or by Chinese).

A northern form of Brahmi developed into the Gupta scripts, from which derived the Tibetan and Khotanese systems. (Khotanese was also influenced by the Kharosthi script.) From the Tibetan script were derived the writing system of the Lepcha (Rong)—the aboriginal inhabitants of Sikkim, India—and the Passepa writing system of the Chinese Imperial chancery under the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368); the Passepa system is no longer in use.

A southern form of Brahmi developed into the Grantha alphabet, from which in turn the writing systems of the Dravidian languages of southern India (e.g., Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada) as well as the writing systems of the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka, the Khmer and Mon languages of Southeast Asia, and the Kavi, or Old Javanese, system of Indonesia were developed. The Thai writing system is thought by scholars to be derived from that of the Khmer, the Burmese and Lao systems from that of Mon, and the Buginese and Batak systems of Indonesia from that of Kavi. The scripts used by speakers of the Tai dialects other than Shan and Lao are derived from the Burmese writing system. The ancient Cham inscriptions of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) speakers who formerly inhabited southern Vietnam are also written in a script of South Indic origin.