Curated category
Languages written in Brahmic scripts
- Bengali languageIn the 3rd century BCE, Indo-Aryans arrived in Bengal and began a process of Sanskritisation that would shape the language for millennia.
- Marathi languageA copper-plate inscription from 739 CE found in Satara marks the earliest known written record of Marathi. This artifact predates other major literary works…
- Thai languageIn 1405, the Chinese explorer Ma Huan recorded the language of the Xiānluó kingdom in his book Yingya Shenglan. He noted that the local speech resembled the…
- Odia languageThe Urajam inscription of 1051 CE stands as the earliest surviving evidence of Old Odia. This royal charter from the Eastern Ganga dynasty marks a clear…
- HindiThe word Hindi traces back to Old Persian, which derived the name from Sanskrit Sindhu, referring to the Indus River. Early inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic…
- SanskritIn the late Bronze Age, a group of people moved from regions north of the Indus River into northwest South Asia. They brought with them a language that would…
- PaliThe word Pali appears in commentarial traditions as a name for the language of the Theravada canon, yet it does not appear in the canonical literature itself.