Query: Vedic Sanskrit is a language that started in the fifth century CE.

Relevant passages:
Vedic Sanskrit <=SEP=> Vedic Sanskrit is an Indo-European language , more specifically one branch of the Indo-Iranian group . It is the ancient language of the Vedas of Hinduism , texts compiled over the period of the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE . It was orally preserved , predating the advent of Brahmi script by several centuries . Vedic Sanskrit is an archaic language , whose consensus translation has been challenging .   Extensive ancient literature in the Vedic Sanskrit language has survived into the modern era , and this has been a major source of information about Indo-European parent language . Quite early in the pre-historic era , Sanskrit separated from the Avestan language ( an Eastern Iranian language ) . The exact century of separation is unknown but this separation of Sanskrit and Avestan occurred certainly before 1800 BCE . Avestan language developed in ancient Persia , was the language of Zoroastrianism , but was a dead language in the Sasanian period . Vedic Sanskrit developed independently in ancient India , evolved into classical Sanskrit after the grammar and linguistic treatise of Pāṇini , and later into many related Indian subcontinent languages in which are found the voluminous ancient and medieval literature of Buddhism , Hinduism and Jainism .

Brahmi script <=SEP=> Brahmi ( IAST : ) is the modern name given to one of the oldest writing systems used in South and Central Asia from the 1st millennium BCE . Brahmi is an abugida that thrived in the Indian subcontinent and uses a system of diacritical marks to associate vowels with consonant symbols . It evolved into a host of other scripts that continue in use . Brahmi is related to the ancient Kharosthi script , which was used in what is now eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan . Kharosthi died out in ancient times .   The best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India , dating to 250 -- 232 BCE . The script was deciphered in 1837 by James Prinsep , an archaeologist , philologist , and official of the East India Company . The origin of the script is still much debated , with most scholars concurring that Brahmi was derived from or at least influenced by one or more contemporary Semitic scripts , while others favor the idea of an indigenous origin or connection to the much older and as-yet undeciphered Indus script .   Brahmi was at one time referred to in English as the `` pin-man '' script , that is `` stick figure '' script . It was known by a variety of other names until the 1880s when Terrien , based on an observation by Gabriel Devéria , associated it with the Brahmi script , the first in a list of scripts mentioned in the Lalitavistara Sūtra . Thence the name was adopted in the influential work of Georg Bühler , albeit in the variant form `` Brahma '' . The Gupta script of the 5th century is sometimes called `` Late Brahmi '' .   The Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants , classified together as the Brahmic scripts . Dozens of modern scripts used across South Asia have descended from Brahmi , making it one of the world 's most influential writing traditions . One survey found 198 scripts that ultimately derive from it . The script was associated with its own Brahmi numerals , which ultimately provided the graphic forms for the Hindu -- Arabic numeral system now used through most of the world .