So just last month I got this wild idea to study Kharoṣṭhī script. You know, that super old writing from places like Gandhara? Sounded fascinating, but man, I had zero clue where to even begin. It’s not like you can just walk into a bookstore and find “Learn Kharoṣṭhī For Dummies” next to the Spanish phrasebooks. Total frustration.
First thing I did, obviously, was hit up the internet. Big mistake. Typed in “learn Kharoṣṭhī script” and got… basically nothing useful. Lots of dry academic papers mentioning it, wiktionary entries that felt like cracking a safe without the combination, and a handful of museum blurbs showing pictures but explaining zip about how it actually works. Dead ends everywhere. I remember sitting there thinking, “Seriously, is this script just locked away in ivory towers?”
Being stubborn, I kept digging. Clicked through page after page of search results until my eyes crossed. Finally, in some dusty corner of a university linguistics department page – bingo!. Stumbled across the title I desperately needed: “Where can I study kharoṣṭhī script? Top learning materials listed here!”. Saved my sanity, that did. This thing listed actual, real resources. Not just theory.
Here’s what ended up working for me, step by step:
- Started Simple: Found a PDF someone scanned. Wasn’t shiny, just a clear breakdown of the basic letters. Printed it out and stared at it for hours. Focused on just getting the shapes right – drawing curves and straight lines over and over in a notebook like I was back in grade school. Felt awkward, but you gotta crawl before you walk.
- Got My Hands Dirty: Tracked down actual inscriptions. Mostly images online since I’m not jetting off to Pakistan anytime soon. The key? Not just looking. Trying to actually read them, super slow, with my cheat sheet next to me. Painstakingly matching symbols to sounds. Saw an ‘a’ carved in stone and felt ridiculously triumphant.
- Went For the Dictionary: Okay, “dictionary” might be a fancy word. Found a digital word list compiled by scholars. Scrolled through it looking for patterns, trying to piece together how words were formed. This was the grind – tedious but essential.
- Tried Transliterating: After a couple of weeks, I got cocky. Took a short English phrase and tried writing it out in Kharoṣṭhī characters. Looked like a toddler scrawled it, probably full of mistakes, but hey – it was progress! Seeing my own words in that ancient script felt pretty darn cool.
Where am I now? Far from fluent, let’s be real. It’s a weird script written right-to-left like Arabic, with vowels tacked onto consonants like Sanskrit. Tricky combo. But guess what? I can actually sound out some basic inscriptions now. Takes ages, super slow, and I probably misread half of it, but compared to last month? Massive jump.
It’s wild. Sometimes you just gotta roll up your sleeves and start scribbling. That’s been my Kharoṣṭhī journey so far – not glamorous, definitely messy, but hugely rewarding to unlock pieces of something so old.
