The Sharda or Sharada alphabet developed from the Brahmi script during the second half of the 8th century AD. The earliest known inscription in the Sharda alphabet dates from 774 AD and was discovered in a village called Hund in the west of Pakistan.

Today only a small group of Brahmins continue to use the Sharda alphabet for writing and calculating astrological and ritual formulations.


Notable features:

This is a syllabic alphabet. Each consonant has an inherant vowel which is changed using vowel diacritics.

Used to write kashmiri, Sanskrit and a number of other languages in the northwest of India, the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and in parts of Central Asia.