The
script is an ancient script used in ancient
Gandhara (primarily modern-day
Afghanistan and
Pakistan) to write the
Gandhari Prakrit and
Sanskrit. It was popular in Central Asia as well. An
abugida, it was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BCE until it died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE. It was also in use in
Bactria, the
Kushan Empire,
Sogdia and along the
Silk Road, where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th century in the remote way stations of
Khotan and
Niya. is encoded in the
Unicode range U+10A00–U+10A5F, from version 4.1.0.