Brahmi script is the ancestor of the scripts of the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and Southeast Asia. A similarly ordered script is described in the late Vedic books.

The earliest Brahmi writing has been found in Sri Lanka and dates to about 500 BC. The Brahmi inscriptions of the King Ashoka are from the 3rd century BC.

Computer analysis has shown that the Brahmi script is derived from the Indus script.