Languages & Scripts

Kharosthi, used primarily in Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan/Afghanistan), was written from right to left, unlike Brahmi which is left to right.

Tamil was the first language in India to be declared a Classical Language in 2004 by the Government of India.

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution currently recognizes 22 scheduled languages.

Brahmi is the progenitor of most Indian scripts; it evolved into various regional scripts during the ancient and medieval periods.

Malayalam is a major Dravidian language, whereas Marathi, Odia, and Gujarati belong to the Indo-Aryan language family.

Jammu and Kashmir has five official languages: Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, Hindi, and English.

The Ahom language, spoken by the Ahom people of Assam, belongs to the Tai-Kadai language family.

Panini, a Sanskrit grammarian, wrote the Ashtadhyayi, which is the foundational text of Sanskrit linguistics.

Rajasthani is not currently listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

While Bodo was historically written in various scripts, Devanagari was officially adopted as its script in 1975.

Telugu is often referred to as the 'Italic of the East' because most of its words end in vowel sounds, similar to Italian.

Most of the major rock edicts and pillar edicts of Ashoka were written in the Brahmi script.

Ol Chiki is the official writing system for the Santhali language, created by Pandit Raghunath Murmu.

Sanskrit is the oldest literary language of the Indo-Aryan group, with the Rigveda being the earliest record.

Konkani is the official language of the state of Goa and is also widely spoken in parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The Official Languages Act, 1963, provides for the continued use of English in addition to Hindi for the official purposes of the Union.

The Indus script remains one of the greatest mysteries of history as it is still undeciphered.

Manipuri, or Meiteilon, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

Sindhi was added to the Eighth Schedule by the 21st Constitutional Amendment Act, 1967.

The Grantha script was used extensively in Southern India between the 6th and 20th centuries to write classical Sanskrit.

Sharada script originated from the Brahmi script and was primarily used for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent.

Khasi belongs to the Austro-Asiatic language family, specifically the Khasic branch, making it unique as it is surrounded by Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan languages.

Tolkaappiyam is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text, which also provides insights into the socio-political and cultural life of ancient Tamil society.

Pali texts were historically recorded using the Brahmi script, which served as the common medium for Buddhist literature in early India.

The 92nd Amendment Act added Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali to the Eighth Schedule in 2003.

Vatteluttu (Round script) was an abugida writing system used in the southern parts of India, specifically in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, for writing Tamil and Malayalam.

Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language. The other classical languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia) are Dravidian, except for Sanskrit.

The Lepcha script (Róng script) is traditionally attributed to the Chogyal (king) Phuntsog Namgyal of Sikkim in the 17th century.

Ol Chiki is the official writing system for the Santhali language, invented by Raghunath Murmu in 1925.

While historically written in Sharada, the Kashmiri language is officially and predominantly written in a modified Perso-Arabic script today.

Aryabhata authored the Aryabhatiya in the 5th century CE, a foundational text for Indian mathematics and astronomy written in Sanskrit.

Malayalam evolved from Middle Tamil by the 9th century CE and gradually became a distinct language in the Kerala region.

Nagamese is a creole language based on Assamese and local Naga languages, serving as a common means of communication across different tribes in Nagaland.

Prakrit refers to a group of Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were the vernacular dialects spoken by the masses, in contrast to the formal Sanskrit.

Kaithi was a script used extensively in North India (especially Bihar and UP) for legal, administrative, and private record-keeping during the Mughal and British periods.

Marathi belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family, while Tulu, Kodava, and Gondi are members of the Dravidian language family.

The Landa scripts are a group of scripts that were historically used in the Punjab and Sindh regions for writing languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, and Saraiki.

In 1856, Robert Caldwell published 'A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages', which proved the independent linguistic status of Dravidian languages.

The Munda languages (such as Santhali, Mundari, Ho) are a subgroup of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

Siddham is a North Indian script derived from the Brahmi script and is the immediate ancestor of the Devanagari script.

The Gunjala Gondi script is a historical script used for the Gondi language, which has seen a revival in recent years.

Nandinagari is a southern variant of the Nagari (Devanagari) script used extensively in the Vijayanagara Empire for Sanskrit inscriptions.

Tulu is a prominent Dravidian language spoken in coastal Karnataka and Kerala, written traditionally in the Tulu script or Kannada script.

The Modi script was the official script used for writing Marathi for administrative purposes during the Maratha Empire.

The inscriptions of the Renati Cholas (6th century AD) are the earliest epigraphical evidence of the Telugu language.

Meetei Mayek is the historical and current script used for writing the Manipuri (Meitei) language.

Takri is a script derived from the Sharada script and was historically used in the Himalayan regions like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu.

The Andamanese languages form their own distinct language family and are considered isolate languages, unrelated to major mainland Indian families.

Brahui is a unique Dravidian language spoken by the Brahui people, geographically isolated in the Balochistan region.

Siddham is a North Indian script that evolved from Brahmi and served as the ancestor to Devanagari, Bengali, and Tibetan scripts.