Nagari, Nāgarī

Nāgarī is an Indian script first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit and widely used during the first millenium CE. Some scholars view it as the ancestor of other scripts such as Devanagari (deva-nāgarī) and Nandinagari, while other linguists consider Nāgarī and Devanāgarī as the same script.

Nāgarī is a Sanskrit technical term used in ancient Indian astronomy, mathematics and geometry. In Shaktism, it refers to one of the eight Servants associated with the "churning" (manthāna).

The Nāgarī script, a left-to-right abugida (segmental writing system), has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family.

Devanagari देवनागरी, already widely used by the 8th century CE, reached its modern form - 48 primary characters, including 14 vowels and 34 consonants - by 1000 CE. It is the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world, being used for more than 120 languages, in particular Hindi (हिंदी).

Note: Several names of towns or cities mentioned in Khmer inscriptions written in Sanskrit end with the suffix -nagari, for instance Jayantanagari, "the victorious city" (K. 908) [a city in which Jayavarman VII placed a Buddha image] or Jayendranagari, "the city of the victorious lord" (K.255) [a palace founded by King Jayavarman V, possibly near Prasat Baphuon, Angkor Thom].