Simonaa at 05:44, 2 May 2026

2026-05-02T05:44:20Z

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{{Short description|Writing system in the Brahmic family}}
{{Infobox Writing system
|name=Gaudi script
|type=[[Abugida]]
|time= c. 900-1300 CE<ref name="salomon"/>
|sample=
|imagesize=
|caption=
|fam1=[[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]][a]
|fam2=[[Phoenician alphabet]][a]
|fam3=[[Aramaic alphabet]][a]
|footnotes=[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
|fam4=[[Brahmi script|Brahmi]]
|fam5=[[Gupta script|Gupta]]
|fam6=[[Siddham script|Siddham]]<ref name="salomon"/>
|sisters= [[Kamarupi script]], [[Nāgarī script|Nagari]]
|children=[[Bengali-Assamese script]], [[Tirhuta]], [[Odia script]]
}}
{{brahmic}}
The '''Gaudi script''' (Gāuṛi lipi), also known as the ('''Proto-BAM script''') '''Proto-BAMO script'''{{efn|Sureshchandra Bhattacharya suggested another name "Proto-BAMO script" in 1969, the full form of which is Proto-Bengali-Assamese-Maithili-Odia script}} is an [[abugida]] in the [[Brahmic scripts|Brahmic]] family of scripts.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Bhattacharyya|first=Sureshchandra|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29794/|title=The evolution of script in North-Eastern India from C.A.D. 400 to 1200, with special reference to Bengal|date=1969|publisher=ProQuest LLC (2018)|pages=56–58|doi=10.25501/SOAS.00029794|type=phd|language=en}}</ref><ref name="salomon">{{cite book |last1=Salomon |first1=Richard |title=Indian Epigraphy |date=1998 |page=41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535666-3 }}</ref><ref name="masica">{{cite book |last1=Masica |first1=Colin |title=The Indo-Aryan languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1993 |page=143|quote=Proto-Bengali gave birth to the Maithili, Modern Bengali (settled in the seventeenth century: Assamese is a nineteenth-century variant), and Oriya scripts, as well as the Manipuri and Newari scripts for two Tibeto Burman languages. |isbn=9780521299442 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Tripāṭhī|first=Kunjabihari|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8MKAQAAIAAJ|title=The Evolution of Oriya Language and Script|publisher=Utkal University|year=1962|page=32 |quote="Proto-Oriya (The Proto-Bengali script script of Bühler)" |access-date=21 March 2021}}</ref> By the fourteenth century, Gaudi script had begun to differentiate and gradually developed into the [[Bengali-Assamese script|Bengali-Assamese]], [[Odia script|Odia]],{{efn|The Oriya script actually appears to have had a composite origin, with secondary influences from the southern scripts and Nagari}} and [[Maithili script]].<ref name="salomon" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cardona|first1=George|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUHfBQAAQBAJ|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|last2=Jain|first2=Dhanesh|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=0-7007-1130-9|series=Routledge language family series|place=London|page=109 |quote=In the northeast, meanwhile separately evolved into a form referred to as ‘proto-Bengali’ or Gaudī, which prevailed until the fourteenth century, by which time it had begun to be differentiated into the modern eastern scripts, Bangla-Asamiya, Maithilī and Oriya.}}</ref>

[[File:Coin - Silver - Circa 9-10th Century 13th Century CE - Harikela Kingdom - ACCN 90-C2752 - Indian Museum - Kolkata 2014-04-04 4303.JPG|thumb|Silver coin with Gaudi script, [[Harikela]] Kingdom, circa 9th–13th century]]

== Naming ==
The Gaudi script is named after the [[Gauda Kingdom]] (Gāuṛ Rājya) of [[Gauḍa (region)]] in ancient [[Bengal]]. In 1030 AD, the [[Persians|Persian]] scholar [[Al-Biruni]], in his writings on India, mentioned the ancient Gaudi script of Eastern India.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Sircar|first=Dineschandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqKw1Mn8WcwC&pg=PA126|title=Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India|date=1971|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=978-81-208-0690-0|pages=126–127|language=en}}</ref> Medieval [[Gauḍa (region)]] is currently known as [[Bengal|Bengal (region)]]. Despite this name, the script was also used in [[Assam]], [[Bihar]], [[Odisha]], [[Jharkhand]], neighbouring parts of [[Nepal]] and [[Rakhine State|Rakhine]] in [[Myanmar]]. The script is called by different names in different regions such as Proto-Assamese, Proto-Bengali, Proto-Maithili, Proto-Oriya in modern time. Which is why Sureshchandra Bhattacharyya suggests neutral names such as the abbreviated Proto-BAM, Proto-BAMO.{{sfnp|Bhattacharyya|1969}}

==History==
[[File:Silver coin of Danujamarddana.jpg|thumb|Silver Coin of Danujmarddana, 1417]]
The Gaudi script appeared in [[History of India|ancient Eastern India]] as a northeastern derivative of the [[Siddham alphabet|Siddham]],<ref name="salomon"/> derived from [[Gupta script|Gupta]]. According to the scholar Bühler, the Gaudi (or ''Proto-Bengali'') script is characterized by its cursive letters and hooks or hollow triangles at the top of the verticals.<ref>{{harvcol|Bhattacharyya|1969|p=55}}</ref> In the 11th century, famous [[Persians|Persian]] scholar [[Al-Biruni]] wrote about the ancient Gaudi script. He mentioned amongst Indian alphabets, Gaudi is used in the [[Gauda Kingdom|purva desa (Eastern County)]].<ref name=":0" />

The modern eastern scripts (Bengali-Assamese, Odia, and Maithili) became clearly differentiated around the 14th and 15th centuries from Gaudi.<ref name="salomon"/> While the scripts in Bengal, Assam and [[Mithila (region)|Mithila]] remained similar to each other, the Odia script developed a curved top in the 13th-14th century and became increasingly different.<ref>"[T]he phase when the curved tops - so prominent now in many of the Oriya letters - were just appearing, initiating the parting of ways from the proto-[Bengali-Assamese-Maithili] phase. The beginning and progress of this trend can be noticed in many of the Orissa [inscriptions] of the 13th-14th centuries A.D." {{harvcol|Bhattacharyya|1969|p=56f}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Gauda Kingdom]]
* [[Gauḍa (region)]]
* [[Brahmi script]]
* [[Brahmic scripts]]
* [[Siddhaṃ script]]
* [[Eastern Nagari]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{List of writing systems |Abugidas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagari Script}}
[[Category:Brahmic scripts]]

Gaudi script - Revision history

Simonaa at 05:44, 2 May 2026