The Kharosthi Script: The Lost Script of Gandhara

By Assad Sharifi

Some languages die, some survive, and some transform so completely that even their creators wouldn’t recognize them. But some, like the Kharosthi script, do not vanish — they linger like ghosts in the bones of other tongues, waiting for a keen ear to listen.

Today, we light a lamp in the darkened library of human history and speak of the Kharosthi Script, the ancient writing system of Gandhara, and its deep connection to Pashto — the living tongue of the frontier.

The Kharosthi Script of Gandhara

A Script Born of Trade Winds and Philosophies

Kharosthi was not born in isolation. It emerged at a crossroad where languages, religions, and ideas mingled like travelers at a caravanserai. Around the 3rd century BCE, under the gaze of the Mauryan Empire and the open-minded Ashoka, Gandhara became a melting pot.

The script itself was a hybrid child:

• Aramaic roots (from the Achaemenid Persian Empire)

• Indo-Aryan phonetics (suited for Gandhari Prakrit)

Unlike Brahmi, which birthed most Indian scripts, Kharosthi was written right-to-left — an inheritance from its Aramaic ancestor, as if even its direction was shaped by the trade winds that flowed west to east and back again across the Silk Road.

This was no accident, but rather a reflection of how Gandhara viewed the world: flexible, open, and flowing between cultures.

The Sound of Gandhara in the Pashto Throat

Pashto — though today dressed in Arabic script — still speaks in the tongue of Kharosthi. The phonetic inventory of Pashto is the direct heir of Gandhari’s soundscape.

Consider these echoes:

Kharosthi-Gandhari Sound	Pashto Equivalent	Notes
kh, gh, sh, ts, dzclusters	Present in Pashto: khwaga (sweet), ghat (cliff), tsalor (four), dzaka (sharp)	These clusters survived invasions, scripts, and religious shifts.
Vowel-consonant economy	Pashto uses tight, clipped vowels similar to Gandhari speech.	Efficient, minimalist syllabic structure.
Retroflex consonants ṭ, ḍ, ṇ	Fully preserved in Pashto: ṭikray (plate), ḍal(lentils), ṇeḍay (nest).	Retroflexion is a Gandharan accent, not foreign.

The Spirit Behind the Script

Kharosthi’s genius was not only technical but philosophical. Unlike Brahmi scripts, which expanded east and south, Kharosthi stayed rooted in the northwest frontier, absorbing Central Asian logic and Persian minimalism.

Its structure mirrors the Privara principle:

• It accommodates matter (symbols for sounds).

• It channels creative energy (flexibility for multiple languages).

• It holds universal knowledge (scripts as carriers of thought).

• It surrenders to space (right-to-left flow, a literal journey across a scroll).

• And it bows to destruction — knowing that the script itself may vanish but its essence will reincarnate.

In Pashto, that reincarnation is complete. Though the script is Arabic, the sounds are Gandharan. Like a tree cut from the surface but alive in the roots.

Pashto — A Gandharan Mind Wearing an Arabic Cloak

When Pashto transitioned to the Arabic script, something strange happened:The soul of Kharosthi refused to die. Pashto speakers adapted the Arabic script to fit their old sound system, not the other way around.

That’s why Pashto needed extra letters not found in Persian or Arabic:

• ښ (sh-like retroflex)

• ږ (gh-like retroflex)

• ڼ (retroflex N)

• څ (ts cluster)

• ځ (dz cluster)

These sounds are direct survivors from Gandhari phonology — not borrowings, not accidents. They are fossils, breathing in plain sight.

The Lasting Impact of Kharosthi on Pashto Thinking

A writing system is more than a tool. It is a map of thought.

Kharosthi shaped not only what people wrote but how they thought:

• Directionality (right-to-left) symbolized openness to outside-in thinking.

• The preference for compactness and flow encouraged poetic brevity.

• Phonetic faithfulness ensured a strong bond between the spoken and the written word.

Pashto, even today, has these traits:

• Its poetic forms (Tapay, Rubai) are short, punchy, and musical.

• It values oral culture over written scholarship — a living Gandharan habit.

• Pashto speakers instinctively favor rhythm and balance in speech, as Gandharans once did.

  
  

final words: The Script is Dead, Long Live the Sound

The Kharosthi script may have vanished from stone, silk, and palm leaves. But it did not die. It simply stepped aside to let the Pashto language carry its voice across the ages.

When a Pashtun child learns to pronounce the letter ښ or the word ځوان (young), the Kharosthi alphabet nods in approval from across time.

Gandhara never left us. It lives on, letter by letter, sound by sound, in the heartbeat of Pashto.

If the universe allows, the next article will explore the grammar of this unbroken connection: The Gandhari Spirit in Pashto Syntax.

Until then, keep your zra open, your saray honest, and your mind as wide as the skies over Gandhara.