The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient abugida (a kind of alphabetic script) used by the Gandhara culture of historic northwest India to write the Gandhari and Sanskrit languages (the Gandhara kingdom was located along the present-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan between the Indus River and the Khyber Pass). It was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BC until it died out in its homeland around the 3rd century AD. It was also in use along the Silk Road where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th c ...

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An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants with an inherent following vowel, which are consistently modified to indicate other vowels, or, in some cases, the lack of a vowel. Examples include the various scripts of the Brahmic family, Ethiopic Ge’ez, and Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. A typical abugida is Devanagari. There is no basic sign representing the consonant k; rather the unmodified letter क represents the syllable ka; th ...

Including:

• Abugida - Partial list of abugidas
• Abugida - External link

Read more here: » Abugida: Encyclopedia - Abugida

A segmental script has graphemes which represent the phonemes (basic unit of sound) of a language. Note that there need not be (and rarely is) a one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes of the script and the phonemes of a language. A phoneme may be represented only by some combination or string of graphemes, the same phoneme may be represented by more than one distinct grapheme, the same grapheme may stand for more than one phoneme, or some combination of all of the above. Segmental scripts may be further divided according to the types of phonemes they typically record:See also:

List of writing systems, List of writing systems - Pictographic/ideographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Logographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Consonant-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllable-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllabaries, List of writing systems - Part syllabic part alphabetic scripts, List of writing systems - Segmental scripts, List of writing systems - Abjads, List of writing systems - True alphabets, List of writing systems - Abugidas, List of writing systems - Undeciphered systems thought to be writing, List of writing systems - Undeciphered manuscripts

Read more here: » List of writing systems: Encyclopedia II - List of writing systems - Segmental scripts

Gondophares is connected to St Thomas in early Christian traditions embodied in the Acts of Thomas. In that miracle-filled romance Thomas was sold in Syria to Habban, an envoy of Gondophares, and travelled in slavery by sea to India, was presented to Gondophares, and undertook the erection of the building the king required. Passing on to the realm of another king, named in the Syrian versions as "Mazdai" (compare Mazda), he allegedly suffered martyrdom before being redeemed. St Thomas thereafter went to Kerala and baptized the natives, whose de ...

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Gondophares, Gondophares - St Thomas, Gondophares - Chronology, Gondophares - Coin types, Gondophares - External link

Read more here: » Gondophares: Encyclopedia II - Gondophares - St Thomas

In 1994 the British Library acquired a group of some eighty Gandharan manuscript fragments of the 1st or 2nd century. They were written on birch bark and stored in clay jars, which preserved them. A team has been at work, trying to decipher that manuscript: three volumes have appeared. One more manuscript, written on birch bark in a Buddhist monastery of the abhidharma tradition, also in the 1st or 2nd century CE, was acquired from a collector by the University of Washington Libraries in 2002. It is an early ...

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Gandhāran Buddhist Texts, Gandhāran Buddhist Texts - The 1994 Afghan manuscripts, Gandhāran Buddhist Texts - The Khotan Dharmapada, Gandhāran Buddhist Texts - Other texts

Read more here: » Gandhāran Buddhist Texts: Encyclopedia II - Gandhāran Buddhist Texts - The 1994 Afghan manuscripts

In a syllabary, graphemes represent syllables or moras. (Note that the 19th century term syllabics usually referred to abugidas rather than true syllabaries.) Afaka — Ndyuka Alaska script — Central Yup'ik Cherokee — Cherokee Cypriot — Mycenean Greek Hiragana — Japanese Japanese Sign Language syllabary — Japanese Sign Language Katakana — Japanese Kpelle — Kpelle See also:

List of writing systems, List of writing systems - Pictographic/ideographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Logographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Consonant-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllable-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllabaries, List of writing systems - Part syllabic part alphabetic scripts, List of writing systems - Segmental scripts, List of writing systems - Abjads, List of writing systems - True alphabets, List of writing systems - Abugidas, List of writing systems - Undeciphered systems thought to be writing, List of writing systems - Undeciphered manuscripts

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Gondophares on horseback, with Zeus. Gondophares on horseback (missing), with Zeus and Nike standing on right hand. Gondophares on horseback (missing), with Athena. Head of Gondophares, with Athena. King on horseback, Nike flying behind him with a wreath, with Shiva. Bust of Gondophares, with winged Nike holding palm and wreath. Gondophares on horseback, with symbol of Gondophares. ...

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Gondophares, Gondophares - St Thomas, Gondophares - Chronology, Gondophares - Coin types, Gondophares - External link

Read more here: » Gondophares: Encyclopedia II - Gondophares - Coin types

On the coins of Gondophares, the royal names are Parthian, but the other legends of the coins are in Greek and Kharoṣṭhī. A votive inscription of the 26th year of Gudavhara or Gondophares, is reported to have been found on a stone at Takht-i-Bahi, northeast of Peshawar with a date in the year 103 of an unspecified era reckoning. This era is likely to have been the Malva or Vikrama era, founded in 57 BCE, this would give a date of 20 CE for his ascension (see Hindu calendar). The stone was formerly in the museum at Lahore. The point is especially important for those Christians who consider that a germ of history ...

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Gondophares, Gondophares - St Thomas, Gondophares - Chronology, Gondophares - Coin types, Gondophares - External link

Read more here: » Gondophares: Encyclopedia II - Gondophares - Chronology

Ideographic scripts (in which graphemes are ideograms representing concepts or ideas, rather than a specific word in a language), and pictographic scripts (in which the graphemes are iconic pictures) are not thought to be able to express all that can be communicated by language. That is, no full writing system can be completely pictographic or ideographic; it must be able to refer directly to a language in order to faithfully represent that language. Hieroglyphs were commonly thought to be ideographic before they w ...

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List of writing systems, List of writing systems - Pictographic/ideographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Logographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Consonant-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllable-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllabaries, List of writing systems - Part syllabic part alphabetic scripts, List of writing systems - Segmental scripts, List of writing systems - Abjads, List of writing systems - True alphabets, List of writing systems - Abugidas, List of writing systems - Undeciphered systems thought to be writing, List of writing systems - Undeciphered manuscripts

Read more here: » List of writing systems: Encyclopedia II - List of writing systems - Pictographic/ideographic writing systems

In logographic writing systems, glyphs represents words or morphemes (meaningful components of words, as in mean-ing-ful), rather than phonetic elements. Note that no logographic script is comprised solely of logograms. All contain graphemes which represent phonetic (sound-based) elements as well. These phonetic elements may be used on their own (to represent, for example, grammatical inflections or foreign words), or may serve as phonetic complements to a logogram (used to specify the sound of a logogram which might oth ...

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List of writing systems, List of writing systems - Pictographic/ideographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Logographic writing systems, List of writing systems - Consonant-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllable-based logographies, List of writing systems - Syllabaries, List of writing systems - Part syllabic part alphabetic scripts, List of writing systems - Segmental scripts, List of writing systems - Abjads, List of writing systems - True alphabets, List of writing systems - Abugidas, List of writing systems - Undeciphered systems thought to be writing, List of writing systems - Undeciphered manuscripts

Read more here: » List of writing systems: Encyclopedia II - List of writing systems - Logographic writing systems