A writing system of Gandhara
Kharoshthi’s principal region was Gandhara, in what is now northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Ashokan inscriptions at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra preserve developed examples from the third century BCE. Its relationship with Aramaic is strong, although the detailed process of its formation remains obscure.
Normally written right to left, the script uses added marks to modify the vowel associated with a consonant. It commonly records Gandhari, as well as Sanskrit or mixed forms. Nineteenth-century decipherment drew on coins bearing Greek and Kharoshthi legends, with later discoveries refining readings and the understanding of particular signs.
Buddhist literature on birch-bark scrolls
A collection of birch-bark fragments acquired by the British Library in 1994 contains Gandhari texts written in Kharoshthi: verses, sutras, commentaries, edifying stories and scholastic works. Some passages can be compared with Pali, Sanskrit or Chinese versions, while others have no known close counterpart.
Their precise findspot is unknown. Researchers assess dating and context through personal names, associated objects, inscriptions, coins and textual relationships. The University of Washington’s Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project developed their study and publication. Such evidence also permits closer examination of proposals that some early Chinese Buddhist translations depended on Gandhari-language sources.
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Niya documents and wider regional use
The script also traveled into Central Asia, where it served documentary purposes. British Library tablet Or.8211/1355 from Niya is catalogued to the second or third century CE. This handled wooden tablet contains drafts of letters and shows scraping on both sides, demonstrating uses beyond religious books.
Language, letter forms, writing materials and archaeological location together record the movement of people and administrative practices. Central Asian use followed a chronology different from that of Gandhara itself. Inscriptions, coins and fragile manuscripts preserve different parts of this history, so the latest surviving example in one region cannot establish a single disappearance date everywhere.