Nāgarī script

{{Short description|Abugida}}

{{Infobox Writing system

|name=Nāgarī

|type=Abugida

|sample=The word Nāgarī in the Nāgarī script.jpg

|imagesize=250px

|caption=The word Nāgarī in the Nāgarī script.

|languages={{plainlist|

• Sanskrit
• Prakrit}}

|time= 7th century CE

|fam1=Proto-Sinaitic alphabet

|fam2=Phoenician alphabet

|fam3=Aramaic alphabet

|fam4=Brahmi

|fam5=Gupta

|fam6=Siddhaṃhttps://archive.org/details/epigraphyindianepigraphyrichardsalmonoup_908_D/mode/2up,p39-41 {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019),p.27{{cite journal |last1=Daniels |first1=P.T. |title=Writing systems of major and minor languages |date=January 2008}}{{cite book |last1=Masica |first1=Colin |title=The Indo-Aryan languages |date=1993 |page=143}}

|sisters=Bengali-Assamese script, Odia script,Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography, R. Malatesha Joshi, Catherine McBride(2019),p.27 Nepalese

|children={{plainlist|

• Devanagari
• Kaithi
• Nandinagari
• Gujarati
• Modi}}

}}

File:1st century Sravasti Bodhisattva, Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, Saheth-Maheth, Uttar Pradesh India.jpg Bodhisattva statue inscribed in 1st-century Brahmi script (first three lines) and 9th-century Nagari script (last line).Richard Salomon (1992), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, p. 81D.R. Sahni (1911), Sahet-Mahet plate of Govinda Chandra Samvat 1186, Epigraphia Indica, Volume XI, pp. 20–26 ]]

{{brahmic}}

The Nāgarī script is the ancestor of Devanagari, Nandinagari and other variants, and was first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.{{cite book |last=Tripathi |first=Kunjabihari |title=The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script |publisher=Utkal University |year=1962 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8MKAQAAIAAJ |page=28 |quote="Northern Nāgarī (almost identical with modern Nagari)" |access-date=21 March 2021 }}Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, {{ISBN|978-1615301492}}, page 83George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415772945}}, pages 68-69 It came in vogue during the first millennium CE.{{cite book|chapter=Devanagari through the ages |title=India Central Hindi Directorate (Instituut voor Toegepaste Sociologie te Nijmegen)|year=1967|location=University of California}}

The Nāgarī script has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family. 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.Richard Salomon (2014), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195356663}}, pages 33-47Pandey, Anshuman. (2017). [https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17162-nandinagari.pdf Final proposal to encode Nandinagari in Unicode.]