Assamese alphabet
| Assamese alphabet Ôxômiya lipi অসমীয়া লিপি |
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|---|---|
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| Type | |
| Languages | Assamese |
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Time period
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8th century to the present |
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Parent systems
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Proto-Sinaitic script
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The Assamese script is a writing system of the Assamese language. It used to be the script of choice in the Brahmaputra valley for Sanskrit as well as other languages such as Bodo (now Devanagari), Khasi (now Roman), Mising (now Roman) etc. The current form of the script has seen continuous development from the 5th-century Umachal/Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscriptions written in an eastern variety of the Gupta script, adopting significant traits from the Siddhaṃ script along the way. By the 17th century three styles of Assamese script could be identified (baminiya, kaitheli and garhgaya) that converged to the standard script following typesetting required for printing. The present standard is identical to the Bengali alphabet except for three letters.
The Buranjis were written during the Ahom dynasty in the Assamese language using the Assamese alphabet. In the 14th century Madhava Kandali used Assamese script to compose the famous Saptakanda Ramayana, which is the first translation of Ramayana in a regional language after Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit. Later, Sankardev used it in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese and Brajavali dialect, the literary language of the bhakti poems (borgeets) and dramas.
The Ahom king Supangmung, (1663–1670) was the first ruler who started issuing Assamese coins for his kingdom. A similar script with minor differences is used to write Maithili, Bengali, Meithei and Sylheti.
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Wikipedia