Nandināgarī is a Brāhmī-based script that was used in southern India between the 11th and 19th centuries AD for producing manuscripts and inscriptions in Sanskrit in south
Maharashtra,
Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh. It derives from the central group of Nāgarī scripts and is related to Devanāgarī. There are also several styles of Nandināgarī, considered by scholars as variant forms of the script. Some of the earliest inscriptions in Nandināgarī have been found in
Tamil Nadu. The 8th century Narasimha Pallava's stone inscriptions in
Mamallapuram on Tamil Nadu's coast, the 10th-century coins from Chola king Rajaraja's period, the Paliyam copper plate inscriptions of the 9th century Ay king Varagunam are all in Nandināgarī script. A
Rigveda manuscript has been found written in Nandināgarī script, as well as manuscripts of other Vedas. Manuscripts of the first century BCE
Vikramacarita, also known as the "Adventures of
Vikrama" or the "Hindu Book of Tales", have been found in Nandinagari script. In a
Travancore temple of
Kerala, an
Anantasayana Mahatmya palm-leaf manuscript was found, and it is in Nandināgarī script. Nandināgarī script was used to spell the
Sanskrit language, and many Sanskrit copper plate inscriptions of the
Vijayanagar Empire were written in that script. These cover
Vedas, philosophy, commentaries on ancient works, mythology, science and arts. These are preserved in the manuscript libraries, particularly those in the southern regions of the country. == Comparison to Devanāgarī ==