Kashmir, known as the Land of Shāradā and considered the Sarvajna Peetha (the seat of all Knowledge), has always been a land of Rishis and great scholars in various fields of knowledge. During his visit in the 7th century AD, Hieun Tsang noted that Sanskrit was spoken fluently by women and children of Kashmir, just like their native language. Shāradā was the main script used to write Sanskrit.
The Shāradā script is a writing system based on the Brahmic family of scripts, which flourished even in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the 13th century AD. Shāradā texts have been found widely in Afghanistan; one of them was engraved on a marble statue of the Indian elephant god Ganesh, which was discovered near Gardez. Another was inscribed on the large Uma Maheshwara from Tepe Skandar, north of Kabul. The Shāradā inscriptions all seem to date back to the 8th century CE.
The Core Shāradā Team is a group of believers who are committed to reviving Shāradā, the sacred script of the Valley of Vitasta. Although Shāradā has been our script for centuries, it has been neglected over the last few hundred years, and now it is only used for ceremonial purposes. We strongly believe that it only needs a little concerted effort from all of us to restore it to its former glory. We invite you to join this movement.
