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. It came in vogue during the first millennium CE.

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.

Etymology

Nagari is a vṛddhi derivation from नगर (), which means city.

History

Origins

Nāgarī belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts. Its development is generally understood as part of the evolution of the northern Indian descendants of Brāhmī rather than as the result of an independent invention. A. K. Singh traces the development of Nāgarī through successive forms of Brāhmī, beginning with Mauryan Brāhmī and continuing through the regional varieties conventionally designated as Śuṅga, Kṣatrapa, Kuṣāṇa, Gupta and Later Gupta scripts. The early development was gradual. From Mauryan Brāhmī to the middle of the sixth century CE, only a limited number of letter forms closely resemble those of later Nāgarī, and Singh therefore treats Nāgarī as the outcome of a long evolutionary process rather than as a script with a single point of origin. Changes in writing technique affected the development of the shape of the early script. The increasing use of cursive writing encouraged changes from angular to more rounded or flowing forms, while different writing materials, including stone, copper plates, birch-bark and palm leaf, affected the appearance of individual letters. Scribal habits and regional traditions further contributed to variation.

By the 6th century 'Kuṭila' or 'Siddhamātṛkā', a post-Gupta development of Brāhmī, forms as a major intermediate stage. Changes in its consonants, vowels, medial signs and ligatures can be traced towards later Nāgarī forms. By the end of the seventh century A.D. the proto-Nagari script developed in the region of Malwa. This Proto-Nagari script shows broader triangular head-marks, or replaces them with a small stroke; and tails or footmarks are added to the bottom of the letters. Salomon describes the northern Indian script of the Gupta period as developing through successive palaeographic stages and identifies Siddhamātṛkā as an important northern script of the late sixth century and later period. He identifies Siddhamātṛkā as the ancestor for several subsequent regional scripts, including Nāgarī. The Kuṭila script developed its final form between the ninth and tenth centuries, and subsequently transforms into a mature form of the Nagari script. Scholars disagree on the exact point in time of this transition. In this period, forms displaying characteristic features of Nāgarī became increasingly widespread. Among these was the increasing prominence of the horizontal head-line, alongside changes in the proportions and shapes of consonants and vowel signs. These features did not appear simultaneously in every region, and different areas retained older forms while developing other new features.

Singh identifies the 11th to 13th centuries as the age of maturity of the Nāgarī script. By this period its principal alphabetic characteristics such as the top-stroke, straight vertical line, halanta sign, uniform medial signs and mutilated initial consonant in ligatures had become established, with the earliest attestations dating to 983 and 1008 AD. The script was in use in the Ganges Valley, Central India, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Western India and the Deccan by the 11th century AD.

Regional varieties and descendant scripts

The maturation of Nāgarī was accompanied by the emergence of regional forms. These should not be understood as the products of a single branching event, since the relationships among the various scripts were shaped by regional writing traditions and continued to change over time.

In northern and central India, Nāgarī became increasingly associated with Sanskrit and eventually with a number of regional languages. The form subsequently known as Devanāgarī became the principal standardized form of the Nagari tradition. Salomon places the development of standardized Devanāgarī around the end of the first millennium, while noting that regional and chronological variation continued.

Nandināgarī represents an important southern form of the Nāgarī tradition. It was used particularly for Sanskrit manuscripts and inscriptions in southern India and the Deccan. Singh distinguishes Nandināgarī from Nāgarī and Jaina-Nāgarī in his comparative palaeographic material, showing both its relationship to the wider Nāgarī tradition and its distinctive letter forms.

In western India, the Gujarati script developed from a Nāgarī-derived writing tradition. Singh associates Gujarati and other cursive scripts with the practical requirements of rapid handwriting. Salomon likewise identifies Gujarati as one of the local scripts that developed out of Nāgarī, alongside scripts such as Moḍī and Kāyethī. The modern Gujarati script became visually distinct from Nāgarī, most notably through the disappearance of the continuous horizontal head-line.

Usage outside India

Inscriptions in early forms of the Nagari script are also found outside of India, in Sri Lanka, Burma and Indonesia.

The 7th century Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo ordered that all foreign books be transcribed into the Tibetan language, and sent his ambassador Tonmi Sambota to India to acquire alphabetic and writing methods, who returned with a Sanskrit Nāgarī script from Kashmir corresponding to twenty-four (24) Tibetan sounds and innovating new symbols for six (6) local sounds.

The museum in Mrauk-u (Mrohaung) in the Rakhine state of Myanmar held in 1972 two examples of Nāgarī script. Archaeologist Aung Thaw describes these inscriptions, associated with the Chandra, or Candra, dynasty that first hailed from the ancient Indian city of Vesáli:

See also

• Nandinagari

• Sylheti Nagri

• Eastern Nagari

• Lipi

References