Sharada script
The Śāradā script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. The script was widespread between the 8th and 12th centuries in the northwestern parts of Indian Subcontinent, for writing Sanskrit and Kashmiri. Although originally a signature Brahminical script created in the valley, it was more widespread throughout northwestern Indian subcontinent, and later became restricted to Kashmir, and is now rarely used, except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for religious purposes.
File:Gardesh Ganesha dedicated by Khingila, Kabul, 7-8th century CE.jpg|thumb|150px|The Gardez Ganesha, a 6th-century marble Ganesha found in Gardez, Afghanistan, now at Dargah Pir Rattan Nath, Kabul. The Sharada inscription says that this "great and beautiful image of " was consecrated by the Shahi King Khingala of Khatriya Country Modern Part of Punjab Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It is a native script of Kashmir and is named after the goddess Śāradā or Saraswati, the goddess of learning and the main Hindu deity of the Sharada Peeth temple.
History
Sharda script is named after the Hindu goddess Śāradā, also known as Saraswati, the goddess of learning and the main Hindu deity of the Sharada Peeth temple.Although originally a script restricted to only Brahmins, Sharda was later spread throughout the larger Hindu population in Northwestern Indian subcontinent, as Hinduism became the dominant religion in the region again.
The Bakhshali manuscript uses an early stage of the Sharada script. The Sharada script was used in Afghanistan as well as in the Himachal region in India. In Afghanistan, the Kabul Ganesh has a 6th to 8th century Proto-Sharada inscription mentioning the, Turk Shahis, king Khingala of Oddiyana. At the historic temple of Mirkula Devi in Lahaul, , the goddess Mahishamardini has a Sharada inscription of 1569 CE.
From the 10th century onwards, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States and Kashmir. Sharada proper was eventually restricted to very limited ceremonial use in Kashmir, as it grew increasingly unsuitable for writing the Kashmiri language. With the last known inscription dating to 1204 C.E., the early 13th century marks a milestone in the development of Sharada. The regional variety in Punjab continued to evolve from this stage through the 14th century; during this period it starts to appear in forms closely resembling Gurmukhī and other Landa scripts. By the 15th century, Sharada had evolved so considerably that epigraphists denote the script at this point by a special name, Devāśeṣa.
Letters
Vowels
Consonants
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Numerals
Sharada script uses its own signs for the positional decimal numeral system.Image gallery
Unicode
Śāradā script was added to the Unicode Standard in January, 2012 with the release of version 6.1.The Unicode block for Śāradā script, called Sharada, is U+11180-U+111DF:
Kashmiri-specific vowels for contemporary use with Śāradā script were added in September 2025 with the release of version 17.0.
They are in the Sharada Supplement block, which is U+11B60–U+11B7F: