The Kharosthi Script: Silk Road's Lost Writing

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Kharosthi script, an ancient writing system that spread across the Silk Road from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia. They discuss its origins under the Indo-Greek king Menander I, its use by the Kushan Empire, and its role in administering trade routes from Taxila to the Tarim Basin. Lucas explains how Kharosthi was written from right to left, how it was deciphered using bilingual coins, and why it eventually died out, replaced by Brahmi and other scripts. They touch on the famous Dharmaguptaka manuscripts from the Gandharan Buddhist texts, the inscriptions of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, and the discovery of Kharosthi documents in the Niya ruins by Sir Aurel Stein. The episode also covers the influence of the Greek alphabet on Kharosthi and the unique tradition of writing on birch bark and palm leaves. A brief donation segment highlights the show's ad-free model, with a mention of buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. #Kharosthi #SilkRoad #IndoGreek #KushanEmpire #MenanderI #Ashoka #Gandhara #Taxila #TarimBasin #Buddhism #Dharmaguptaka #SirAurelStein #Niya #Brahmi #AncientScripts #HistoricalLinguistics #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo