Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 1st century CE Rudradaman inscriptions in Gujarat reveal the earliest recognizable forms of Devanagari. These stone carvings show a script that had already evolved from the ancient Brahmi writing system used since the 3rd century BCE.
Over 120 languages currently use Devanagari as their primary or secondary writing system with Hindi remaining the most popular language written with this script today. Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit, Boro, and Konkani all rely on Devanagari for daily communication and literature.
A distinctive horizontal line called a shirorekha runs along the top of full letters to group them into words. This feature distinguishes it visually from Bengali-Assamese or Gurmukhi scripts while maintaining similar phonetic principles.
The script contains 48 primary characters consisting of 14 vowels and 34 consonants arranged according to phonetic articulation points. Vowels appear either independently or as diacritics attached to consonants.
The script appears in Hindu temples throughout Java including the Prambanan temple complex built around the 8th century. Inscriptions found in Ligor and Kalasan in central Java date back to the same period and show clear influences from North Indian prototypes.