Brahmi Inscription

About Brahmi Inscription:

• The Brahmi script is the earliest writing system developed in India after the Indus script. 
• It is one of the most influential writing systems; all modern Indian scripts and several hundred scripts found in Southeast and East Asia are derived from Brahmi.

• Most examples of Brahmi found in North and Central India represent the Prakrit language.

• The earliest known Brahmi inscriptions are from the edicts of Ashoka, the third Mauryan emperor of Magadha who ruled most of the sub-continent between 268 and 232 BCE. 

• Traces of the script have been discovered not just in the Gangetic plains but also in excavated sites in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka, mostly on pottery shards.

• Among the many descendant scripts of Brahmi are those of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, such as Devanagari and the Bengali and Gujarati scripts; those of the Deccan region, including the scripts for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.