Sharada script

The Śāradā script, also called Sarada or Sharada, is a special way of writing. It belongs to a group known as the Brahmic family. People used it a long time ago, from the 8th to the 12th centuries, in places like Kashmir and nearby areas in the northwestern part of the Indian Subcontinent. They mainly used this script to write Sanskrit and the Kashmiri language.

Even though it started as a script used mainly by Brahmins in the Kashmir valley, it became well-known in many places. Over time, its use shrank mostly to Kashmir. Today, it is hardly ever used except by the Kashmiri Pandit community for special religious purposes.

This script is very important to the people of Kashmir because it is their own special way of writing. It is named after the goddess Śāradā, also known as Saraswati, the goddess of learning. She is a key Hindu deity connected to the ancient Sharada Peeth temple.

History

The 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.

At first, this script was only used by Brahmins, but later it became more common among the larger Hindu population in Northwestern Indian subcontinent as Hinduism grew stronger in the area.

The Sharada script was used in places like Afghanistan and the Himachal region in India. In Afghanistan, the Kabul Ganesh has an old inscription from the 6th to 8th century mentioning the Turk Shahis, king Khingala of Oddiyana. At the temple of Mirkula Devi in Himachal Pradesh, there is a Sharada inscription from the year 1569 CE.

Starting from the 10th century, different areas like Punjab, the Hill States (which include parts of Himachal Pradesh), and Kashmir began to use slightly different versions of the Sharada script. Over time, Sharada became mostly used only for special ceremonies in Kashmir because it was no longer the best way to write the Kashmiri language. The last known Sharada inscription is from 1204 CE. In Punjab, the script kept changing until the 14th century and started to look more like Gurmukhī and other Landa scripts. By the 15th century, Sharada had changed so much that experts gave it a new name, Devāśeṣa.

Letters

The Sharada script was an old way of writing. It was used from the 8th to the 12th century. People mainly used it in the northwestern part of the Indian Subcontinent, especially in a place called Kashmir. They used it to write languages like Sanskrit and Kashmiri.

Today, very few people use this script. Only a small group called Kashmiri Pandits still use it for religious reasons.

Vowels

Consonants

Numerals

The Sharada script uses special signs for numbers. These signs help show numbers in different places, just like the digits we use today.

Image gallery

This section shows pictures about the Sharada script. You can see examples of Sharada vowels and consonant signs. There are images comparing Sanskrit written in Devanagari script with Kashmiri written in Sharada script. You’ll also find an old manuscript using the Sharada script, a religious text called the Sharadastotra, and a beautiful Kashmiri painting of important Hindu gods inside the Sharada script Omkar symbol. Lastly, there is a page from a poem called Citrabhânuçataka written in Sharada script from around the 17th century.

Unicode

Main articles: Sharada (Unicode block) and Sharada Supplement (Unicode block)

The Śāradā script was added to Unicode in January 2012.

Kashmiri-specific vowels for modern use were added in September 2025. These vowels are in the Sharada Supplement block.