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The Kharoṣṭhī script is an ancient script used by the ancient Gandhara culture of South Asia primarily in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan to write the Gāndhārī language (a prakrit) and the Sanskrit language. It developed from the Aramaic alphabet. It was spread in Northern India and the south of Middle Asia (Bactria, Sogdiana) in the III century BC — IV AC. Besides that, it was found 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.

Kharoṣṭhī may be characterized as a half-alphabetical, half-syllabic script, or alphasyllabary. Each character stood for a vowel or a combination like consonant + vowel. Syllabic vowels were marked by additional features or modifications of signs. The alphabet also had ligatures.

Unlike the Brahmi script, which existed in that era and was the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets of India and south-east Asia, the Kharoṣṭhī alphabet was long forgotten. It was decoded again only in the XIX century by James Prinsep.