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Introduction
The Nāgari script (also known as Devanāgari) is prevalent in a large part of the Indian sub-continent and employed for writing different regional languages. It has developed ultimately from the script popularly called the Mauryan Brāhmi. During earlier centuries, the various stages of its development can be discerned; however, by which appellation/s these scripts were known among the contemporary peoples is as yet unknown The historians and palaeographers prefer to call them Sunga, Kshatrapa, Kushāna, Gupta, or Later-Gupta script, depending on the period and region. While it is certain that those scripts were precursors of the present Nāgarī, it is hard to ascertain whether Nāgarī was the appellation by which it was known between first to eighth centuries A.D. The present work is addressed to investigate into this problem.
The Appellation Nāgari
Various etymologies have been suggested for the word Nāgarī. On the basis of the Lalitavistara (c. 5th-6th Cent. A.D.), A.C. Burnell is inclined to believe that it was the 'nāga-lipi' (serpent writing). But L.D. Bernetta found no connection between the ‘nāga-lipi' and the Devanāgarī script. Furthermore, there seems no etymological relation in the formation of the word 'Nāgari-lipi' from 'nāga-lipi' or vice versa.
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