Editing Sanskrit (section)

====Other writing systems====
{{brahmic}}
[[File:Phrase sanskrit.svg|thumb|260px|upright=1.35|Sanskrit in modern Indian and other Brahmi scripts: ''May [[Shiva|Śiva]] bless those who take delight in the language of the gods.'' ([[Kālidāsa]])]]
Other scripts such as [[Gujarati alphabet|Gujarati]], [[Bengali-Assamese script|Bangla-Assamese]], [[Odia alphabet|Odia]] and major south Indian scripts, states Salomon, "have been and often still are used in their proper territories for writing Sanskrit".{{sfn|Dhanesh Jain|George Cardona|2007|pp=68–70 in Chapter 3 by Salomon}} These and many Indian scripts look different to the untrained eye, but the differences between Indic scripts is "mostly superficial and they share the same phonetic repertoire and systemic features", states Salomon.{{sfn|Dhanesh Jain|George Cardona|2007|pp=70–78 in Chapter 3 by Salomon}} They all have essentially the same set of eleven to fourteen vowels and thirty-three consonants as established by the Sanskrit language and attestable in the Brahmi script. Further, a closer examination reveals that they all have the similar basic graphic principles, the same ''varnamala'' (literally, "garland of letters") alphabetic ordering following the same logical phonetic order, easing the work of historic skilled scribes writing or reproducing Sanskrit works across South Asia.{{sfn|Dhanesh Jain|George Cardona|2007|pp=70–71, 75–76 in Chapter&nbsp;3 by Salomon}}{{efn|Salomon states that these shared graphic principles that combine syllabic and alphabetic writing are distinctive for Indic scripts when contrasted with other major world languages. The only known similarity is found in the Ethiopic scripts, but Ethiopic system lacks clusters and the Indic set of full vowels signs.{{sfn|Dhanesh Jain|George Cardona|2007|pp=70–71 in Chapter&nbsp;3 by Salomon}} }}

[[File:Mandakapattu Inscription.jpg|thumb|260px|left|One of the earliest known Sanskrit inscriptions in Tamil Grantha script at a rock-cut Hindu Trimurti temple ([[Mandagapattu Temple|Mandakapattu]], {{Circa|615&nbsp;CE}})]]
In the south, where [[Dravidian languages]] predominate, scripts used for Sanskrit include the [[Kannada alphabet|Kannada]], [[Telugu script|Telugu]], [[Malayalam script|Malayalam]] and [[Grantha alphabet]]s.