The Kharosthi script (also known as ‘Indo-Bactrian’ script) was a writing system originally developed in present-day northern Pakistan, sometime between the 4th and 3rd century BCE. Kharosthi was employed to represent a form of Prakrit (Middle Indic), an Indo-Aryan language. It had a wide but irregular distribution along northern Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, northwest India, and Central Asia.
As the Brahmi script dominated most of India outside the northwest, Kharosthi remained dominant in this region: most inscriptions between c. 200 BCE and CE 200 in this area were written in Kharosthi.
Kharosthi arrived into several areas in central Asia, aided by the flourishing commerce of the Silk Road. It was Employed in the kingdom of Shanshan (founded in the 1st century BCE) located in the southern and eastern area of the Tarim basin. Most texts found in Shanshan are written in the Chinese script, but some Kharosthi examples were retrieved from the ancient cities of Niya and Endere, in the western section of Shanshan.
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