Our starting epoch for Sanskrit can be the period of the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization and the advent of the Aryans. Due to our inability to decipher the signs on the Indus seals and therefore conclusively prove or disprove any overlap between the language of late-stage Indus Valley people and Sanskrit, we rely on other corroborative evidence. These include the evolution of Sanskrit between the Rigveda and later Vedic texts, the reconstruction of linguistic chronology and the branching of languages from Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-European, comparisons with related languages like Avestan and Mitanni Indo-Aryan texts found in Syria, changes reflected in the Vedic oral recitation traditions, and references to past refinements by Pāṇini. Together, these place the emergence of Sanskrit’s linguistic identity around 1500 BCE or earlier.
The first inscriptions of Sanskrit appear in the first century BCE, such as the Ayodhya and Hathibada inscriptions. One of the earliest extensive Sanskrit inscriptions is the Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman I (150 CE). However, a strong oral tradition kept Sanskrit literature alive long before its widespread adoption in written form.
The Brahmi script is the most widely used script for early Sanskrit inscriptions. The Kharosthi script, derived from Aramaic, was primarily used for Gandhari Prakrit but also has a some examples of having been used for Sanskrit. By the Gupta period (4th-6th century CE), a transitional script known as Gupta script emerged, later evolving into Nagari, Siddham, Sharada, Tamil Grantha, Proto-Bengali, Proto-Oriya, and other scripts. Like the Proto-Indo-Iranian-European language, which completely lost its independent existence by fragmenting into its offspring languages, the Gupta script was fully scavenged by its descendant scripts. The new scripts took over, absorbing and reshaping it to the point that it no longer survived in any independent form.
The Siddham script, a Buddhist liturgical script, was used for Sanskrit between the 6th and 12th centuries CE, particularly in East Asia. The Sharada script, used in Kashmir from the 8th century onwards, later influenced the development of Gurmukhi. Tamil Grantha script, developed to accommodate Sanskrit phonetics, but was primarily used for transliteration rather than original composition. Other offshoots of the Grantha family were also used to record Sanskrit, contributing to the adoption of Sanskrit alphabet systems by various scripts and languages. As regional languages developed, their scripts were increasingly used for Sanskrit texts to enhance accessibility for local audiences.
The script now most closely associated with Sanskrit, Devanagari, originates as Nagari around the 8th century CE. It gradually replaced the Gupta script in northern and central India, becoming the dominant script for Sanskrit by the 10th century, a status it retains today. However, Sanskrit was historically written in multiple scripts, and Devanagari was only one among many.
Starting with scholars like William Jones in the late 18th century and Max Müller in the 19th century, Sanskrit began to be transcribed using the Roman script. The Monier-Williams dictionary (1872) was among the earliest to use Roman letters for Sanskrit words. Today, transliteration systems like IAST, Harvard-Kyoto, and ITRANS are widely used in academia and online platforms. This accessibility has significantly expanded the reach of Sanskrit, allowing scholars, students and enthusiasts worldwide to study Sanskrit texts without needing proficiency in Devanagari. The increased use of transliteration has facilitated research in fields ranging from ancient Indian philosophy, religion and literature to modern applications such as computing. The adoption of the Roman script has made Sanskrit more accessible, even within India, where lack of familiarity with Devanagari was previously a barrier. This demonstrates the continuing relevance and importance of Sanskrit as both a language and a repository of ancient knowledge.