Science and Art of Calligraphy and Painting

Author(s): S Andhare
Publisher: Indian National Science Academy

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one from the 'sematic' category and was prevalent in Punjab (Himachal Pradesh or Haryana) for some time but later on completely disappeared. Its place was taken by Brahmi and became popular at all Buddhist establishments in India and in the Central Asia.
Historians believe that due to trade contacts with Iran, Persia and Central Asia, the prevalent script of those countries may have travelled to India and came in to vogue. This was called the 'armaik' script, from where perhaps Kharoshti may have born. For instance, during the Islamic period in India their language (Urdu or Persian) became popular and assumed the status of the official language.
Originally, the above armaik script had only 22 letters which proved utterly insufficient for the Indian language. Therefore a number of words, vovels and consonants were added to the script to make it more complete and workable.
There is yet another school of thought which goes to explain that there was one Brahman acharya named Kharostha, from whose name Kharosthi may have come.
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Fig 18 Rock cut edicts