Sharada Lipi

Book excerpt: Sanskrit संस्कृत is commonly written in the देवनागरी Devanagari script, whereas English is written in the Roman script. Earlier Sanskrit was written in the Sharada Lipi also. This script flourished post the golden age of the Gupta period in India circa 2nd to 13th century CE, and continued to be used till as recently as the 18th century. India's Finance Minister Hon. Nirmala Sitharaman on 1st Feb 2020 during presentation of the Union Budget in point No 20 recited a verse in Kashmiri and displayed the graphic of a poem written in Sharada Lipi. This book attempts to elucidate the Sharada lipi as found in ancient Sanskrit texts. This makes it an invaluable resource for the linguist and the scholar who is helping to revive the script. It is hoped this book will enable avid readers to decipher the wisdom in the ancient texts and come up with some amazing and much needed scientific inventions. The Śāradā script is an abugida writing system of the Brahmi family. It is commonly spelt as Sharda or Sharada. It was in use for ‎Sanskrit and Kashmiri languages. Even today, birth horoscopes are made by pundits using this script in Kashmir. The Gurmukhi script used in writing the Punjabi language is a descendant of Śāradā Lipi.