Editing Devanagari (section)

== History ==
{{Further|Sanskrit epigraphy}}

Devanāgarī is part of the [[Brahmic family]] of scripts of [[India]], [[Nepal]], [[Tibet]], and [[Southeast Asia]].<ref>{{Cite book |first1=George |last1=Cardona |first2=Danesh |last2=Jain |date=2003 |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415772945 |pages=68–69}}</ref><ref name="fischer2004">{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Steven Roger |title=A History of Writing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ywo0M9OpbXoC |date=2004 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200307151643/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ywo0M9OpbXoC |url-status=live |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-86189-167-9 |quote=(p. 110) "{{omission}}&nbsp;an early branch of this, as of the fourth century&nbsp;CE, was the Gupta script, Brahmi's first main daughter. {{omission}} The Gupta alphabet became the ancestor of most Indic scripts (usually through later Devanagari). {{omission}} Beginning around AD&nbsp;600, Gupta inspired the important Nagari, Sarada, Tibetan and Pāḷi scripts. Nagari, of India's northwest, first appeared around AD&nbsp;633. Once fully developed in the eleventh century, Nagari had become Devanagari, or "heavenly Nagari", since it was now the main vehicle, out of several, for Sanskrit literature." |archive-date=7 March 2020}}</ref> It is a descendant of the 3rd century&nbsp;BCE [[Brāhmī script]], which evolved into the [[Nagari script]] which in turn gave birth to Devanāgarī and [[Nandināgarī]]. Devanāgarī has been widely adopted across India and Nepal to write [[Sanskrit]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Hindi]], [[Central Indo-Aryan languages]], [[Konkani language|Konkani]], [[Boro language (India)|Boro]], and various Nepalese languages.

Some of the earliest epigraphic evidence attesting to the developing [[Sanskrit]] [[Nāgarī script]] in ancient India is from the 1st to 4th century&nbsp;CE inscriptions discovered in [[Gujarat]].<ref name="gazett">{{Cite book |url={{Google books|0bkMAAAAIAAJ|Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency|plainurl=yes}} |chapter=Rudradaman's inscription from 1st through 4th century&nbsp;CE found in Gujarat, India |title=Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency |publisher=Stanford University Archives |pages=30–45, particularly Devanāgarī inscription on Jayadaman's coins (pp.&nbsp;33–34)}}</ref> Variants of script called {{IAST|nāgarī}}, recognisably close to Devanāgarī, are first attested from the 1st century&nbsp;CE [[Rudradaman I|Rudradaman]] inscriptions in Sanskrit, while the modern standardised form of Devanāgarī was in use by about 1000&nbsp;CE.<ref name="salomon1000">{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Salomon |date=2014 |title=Indian Epigraphy |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195356663 |pages=40–42}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Krishna Chandra |last=Sagar |date=1993 |title=Foreign Influence on Ancient India |publisher=South Asia Books |isbn=978-8172110284 |page=137}}</ref> Medieval inscriptions suggest widespread diffusion of Nāgarī-related scripts, with [[biscript]]s presenting local script along with the adoption of Nāgarī scripts. For example, the mid 8th-century [[Pattadakal|Pattadakal pillar]] in [[Karnataka]] has text in both [[Siddhamatrka|Siddha Matrika]] script, and an early [[Telugu-Kannada alphabet|Telugu-Kannada]] script; while, the [[Kangra, Himachal Pradesh|Kangra]] [[Jawalamukhi]] inscription in [[Himachal Pradesh]] is written in both [[Sharada script|Sharada]] and Devanāgarī scripts.<ref name="richardbiscript">{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Salomon |date=2014 |title=Indian Epigraphy |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195356663 |page=71}}</ref>

The Nāgarī script was in regular use by the 7th century&nbsp;CE, and it was fully developed by about the end of first millennium.<ref name=kathleen/><ref name=salomon1000/> The use of Sanskrit in Nāgarī script in medieval India is attested by numerous pillar and cave-temple inscriptions, including the 11th-century [[Udayagiri Caves|Udayagiri inscriptions]] in [[Madhya Pradesh]],<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Michael |last=Willis |date=2001 |title=Inscriptions from Udayagiri: locating domains of devotion, patronage and power in the eleventh century |journal=South Asian Studies |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=41–53|doi=10.1080/02666030.2001.9628591 |s2cid=161258027 }}</ref> and an inscribed brick found in [[Uttar Pradesh]], dated to be from 1217&nbsp;CE, which is now held at the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/b/brick_with_sanskrit_inscriptio.aspx |title=Brick with Sanskrit inscription in Nāgarī script, 1217&nbsp;CE, found in Uttar Pradesh, India (British Museum) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019091410/https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/b/brick_with_sanskrit_inscriptio.aspx |archive-date=19 October 2015}}</ref> The script's prototypes and related versions have been discovered with ancient relics outside India, in places such as [[Sri Lanka]], [[Myanmar]] and [[Indonesia]]. In East Asia, the {{IAST|Siddhaṃ matrika}} script (considered as the closest precursor to Nāgarī) was in use by [[Buddhism|Buddhists]].<ref name=george/><ref>{{Cite book |first=Wayan |last=Ardika |date=2009 |title=Form, Macht, Differenz: Motive und Felder ethnologischen Forschens |editor-first=Elfriede |editor-last=Hermann |display-editors=et al. |publisher=Universitätsverlag Göttingen |isbn=978-3940344809 |language=de |pages=251–252|quote="Nagari script and Sanskrit language in the inscription at Blangjong suggests that Indian culture was already influencing Bali (Indonesia) by the 10th century&nbsp;CE."}}</ref> Nāgarī has been the {{lang|la|[[primus inter pares]]}} of the Indic scripts.<ref name="george">{{Cite book |first1=George |last1=Cardona |first2=Danesh |last2=Jain |date=2003 |title=The Indo-Aryan Languages |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415772945 |pages=75–77}}</ref> It has long been used traditionally by religiously educated people in [[South Asia]] to record and transmit information, existing throughout the land in parallel with a wide variety of local scripts (such as [[Moḍī script|Moḍī]], [[Kaithi script|Kaithi]], and [[Mahajani script|Mahajani]]) used for administration, commerce, and other daily uses.

Sharada remained in parallel use in [[Kashmir]]. An early version of Devanāgarī is visible in the [[Kutila inscription of Bareilly]] dated to [[Vikram Samvat|VS]]&nbsp;1049 (992&nbsp;CE), which demonstrates the emergence of the horizontal bar to group letters belonging to a word.<ref name="taylor2003">{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Isaac |url=https://archive.org/stream/alphabet00unkngoog#page/n348/mode/2up/ |title=History of the Alphabet: Aryan Alphabets, Part 2 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench & Co |date=1883 |isbn=978-0-7661-5847-4 |pages=324, 333 |quote={{omission}}&nbsp;In the Kutila this develops into a short horizontal bar, which, in the Devanagari, becomes a continuous horizontal line {{omission}} three cardinal inscriptions of this epoch, namely, the Kutila or Bareli inscription of 992, the [[Chalukya]] or Kistna inscription of 945, and a Kawi inscription of 919 {{omission}} the Kutila inscription is of great importance in Indian epigraphy, not only from its precise date, but from its offering a definite early form of the standard Indian alphabet, the Devanagari {{omission}}}}</ref> One of the oldest surviving Sanskrit texts from the early post-[[Maurya Empire|Maurya]] period consists of 1,413 Nāgarī pages of a commentary by [[Patanjali]], with a composition date of about 150&nbsp;BCE, the surviving copy transcribed about 14th century&nbsp;CE.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Witzel |first= Michael |author-link=Michael Witzel |title=17. Brahmanical Reactions to Foreign Influences and to Social and Religious Change |date=2006 |encyclopedia=Between the Empires: Society in India 300&nbsp;BCE to 400&nbsp;CE |editor-last=Olivelle |editor-first= Patrick |editor-link=Patrick Olivelle |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195305326 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305326.003.0017 |pages=477–480 with footnote 60}};<br />Original manuscript, dates in Saka Samvat, and uncertainties associated with it: {{Citation |url=https://archive.org/stream/vykaraamahbhshy00kielgoog#page/n8/mode/2up |title=Mahabhasya of Patanjali |year=1880 |publisher=Bombay, Government central Book depôt |editor-first=F. |editor-last=Kielhorn}}</ref>

In [[Sinja Valley]], mid-western [[Nepal]] where the Nepali language originates from, the earliest examples of the Devanagari script from the 13th century were found on the cliffs and in nearby Dullu.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5263/|title=Sinja valley - UNESCO World Heritage Centre|last=Centre|first=UNESCO World Heritage|website=whc.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2018-10-23}}</ref>

{{Gallery
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| title = Examples of Devanāgarī manuscripts created between the 18th and 19th centuries
|File:Isha Upanishad Verses 1 to 3, Shukla Yajurveda, Sanskrit, Devanagari.jpg|
|File:13th-century Shatapatha Brahmana 14th Khanda Prapathaka 3-4, page 1 front, Sanskrit, Devanagari script.jpg|
|File:Yajurveda 44.8, page 1 front and back, Sanskrit, Devanagari lipi (script).jpg|
|File:1593 CE, Adi Shankara bhasya Aitareya Upanishad, Varanasi Jain temple bhandara, Sanskrit, Devanagari, MS Add.2092.jpg|
}}{{Devanagari abugida sidebar}}

=== East Asia ===
In the 7th century, under the rule of [[Songtsen Gampo]] of the [[Tibetan Empire]], [[Thonmi Sambhota]] was sent to Nepal to open marriage negotiations with a [[Licchavi (kingdom)|Nepali]] princess and to find a writing system suitable for the [[Classical Tibetan|Tibetan]] language. He then invented the [[Tibetan script]] based on the Nāgarī used in Kashmir. He added 6 new characters for sounds that did not exist in Sanskrit.<ref>{{Cite book |first=William Woodville |last=Rockhill |url={{Google books|avFDAQAAMAAJ|Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution|page=671|plainurl=yes}} |title=Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution |publisher=United States National Museum |page=671}}</ref>

Other scripts closely related to Nāgarī (such as [[Siddhaṃ script|Siddhaṃ]]) were introduced throughout East and Southeast Asia from the 7th to the 10th centuries&nbsp;CE: notably in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan.<ref>{{Cite book |first=David |last=Quinter |date=2015 |title=From Outcasts to Emperors: Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī Cult in Medieval Japan |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004293397 |pages=63–65 with discussion on [[Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra]]}}</ref><ref name="richard">{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Salomon |date=2014 |title=Indian Epigraphy |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195356663 |pages=157–160}}</ref>

Most of the Southeast Asian scripts have roots in Dravidian scripts, but a few found in south-central regions of Java and isolated parts of southeast Asia resemble Devanāgarī or its prototypes. The [[Kawi script]] in particular is similar to the Devanāgarī in many respects, though the morphology of the script has local changes. The earliest inscriptions in the Devanāgarī-like scripts are from around the 10th century&nbsp;CE, with many more between the 11th and 14th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teselkin |first=Avenir S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJ1kAAAAMAAJ |title=Old Javanese (Kawi) |publisher=Cornell University Press |date=1972 |pages=9–14 |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126234553/https://books.google.com/books?id=xJ1kAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=26 January 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=de Casparis |first1=J. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLUfAAAAIAAJ |title=Indonesian Palaeography: A History of Writing in Indonesia from the Beginnings to c. AD&nbsp;1500 |publisher=BRILL Academic |date=1975 |isbn=90-04-04172-9 |pages=35–43 |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200313164916/https://books.google.com/books?id=cLUfAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=13 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some of the old-Devanāgarī inscriptions are found in Hindu temples of Java, such as the [[Prambanan]] temple.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zurbuchen |first=Mary S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y4kOAAAAYAAJ |title=Introduction to Old Javanese Language and Literature: A Kawi Prose Anthology |publisher=Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan |date=1976 |isbn=978-0-89148-053-2 |pages=xi–xii |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227150848/https://books.google.com/books?id=y4kOAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=27 February 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Ligor and the Kalasan inscriptions of central Java, dated to the 8th century, are also in the Nāgarī script of north India. According to the epigraphist and Asian Studies scholar Lawrence Briggs, these may be related to the 9th century copper plate inscription of Devapaladeva (Bengal) which is also in early Devanāgarī script.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Briggs |first=Lawrence Palmer |date=1950 |title=The Origin of the Sailendra Dynasty: Present Status of the Question |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=JSTOR |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=79–81 |doi=10.2307/595536 |issn=0003-0279 |jstor=595536}}</ref> The term kawi in Kawi script is a loan word from {{IAST|[[kāvya]]}} (poetry). According to anthropologists and Asian studies scholars [[John Norman Miksic]] and Goh Geok Yian, the 8th century version of early Nāgarī or Devanāgarī script was adopted in Java, [[Bali]], and Khmer around the 8th–9th centuries, as evidenced by the many contemporaneous inscriptions of this period.<ref name="MiksicYian2016p177">{{Cite book |last1=Miksic |first1=John Norman |last2=Yian |first2=Goh Geok |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjklDwAAQBAJ |title=Ancient Southeast Asia |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-27904-4 |pages=177–179, 314–322 |author-link=John N. Miksic |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306072439/https://books.google.com/books?id=zjklDwAAQBAJ |archive-date=6 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Gallery
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|File:Falongsibeiye.png| [[Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra]] in [[Siddhaṃ script|Siddhaṃ]] on [[Arecaceae|palm]] leaf in 609&nbsp;CE found in [[Hōryū-ji]], Japan. The last line is a complete Sanskrit [[syllabary]] in Siddhaṃ script.
}}{{Brahmi-Gupta-Devanagari}}