4. The Kharosthi Script
- The Kharosthi Script was almost contemporarily with the Brahmi.
- Appeared by 3rd c. BC in northern Pakistan and east Afghanistan.
- Some examples of Kharosthi also occur in India.
- Like Brahmi, Kharosthi were developed for Prakrit dialects.
- The early Brahmi and Kharosthi did not have the dipthongs /ai/, /au/, and the vocalic /r/ and /l/, so common in Sanskrit.
- Kharosthi was used primarily for the Prakrit dialect of Gandhari.
- In structure & sequence, Kharosthi and Brahmi are similar.
- But Brahmi had different signs for different initial vowels, but it used the same marks that change vowels in C-V combinartion.
- Brahmi had long and short vowel signs, Kharosthi had only one.
- Kharosthi Script fell out of use by the 3rd or 4th century.
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