page_title: Brahmic scripts
section_title: Historical
hierarchical_section_title: Brahmic scripts / List of Brahmic scripts / Historical
caption_attribution_description: English: Distribution of the Dravidian languages in South Asia, distinguishing four major subgroups: South (red), South-Central (orange), Central (yellow) and North (green). Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-77111-0, Map 1.1, p. 18.
context_page_description: The Brahmic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, including Japan in the form of Siddhaṃ. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order of Japanese kana.
context_section_description: The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BC. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century AD and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Vatteluttu and Old-Kannada/Pallava scripts with the spread of Buddhism sent Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.
caption: Dravidian languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except Brahui which uses Arabic derived script).
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