Devanagari in the context of "Scriptures"

The history of writing traces the development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing – as well as the resulting phenomena of literacy and literary culture in some historical instances – has had myriad social and psychological consequences.

Each historical invention of writing emerged from systems of proto-writing that used ideographic and mnemonic symbols but were not capable of fully recording spoken language. True writing, where the content of linguistic utterances can be accurately reconstructed by later readers, is a later development. As proto-writing is not capable of fully reflecting the grammar and lexicon used in languages, it is often only capable of encoding broad or imprecise information.

Abhijnanashakuntalam (Devanagari: अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम्, IAST: Abhijñānaśākuntalam), also known as Shakuntala, The Recognition of Shakuntala, The Sign of Shakuntala, and many other variants, is a Sanskrit play by the ancient Indian poet Kālidāsa, dramatizing the story of Śakuntalā told in the epic Mahābhārata and regarded as the best of Kālidāsa's works. Its exact date is uncertain, but Kālidāsa is often placed in the 4th century CE.

The Bhujimol script (or Bhujinmol, Devanagari: भुजिमोल or भुजिंमोल) is the most ancient form of Nepal script. It is also one of the most common varieties of the Nepal alphabet.

The Bhujimol script has been used to write Nepal Bhasa and Sanskrit.

A unicase or unicameral alphabet is a writing script that has no separate cases for its letters. Semitic abjads such as Hebrew and Arabic, Brahmic scripts such as Devanagari, Tamil and Thai, Chinese characters, Hangul and the Iberian and Georgian scripts are unicase writing systems, while scripts like Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Armenian are bicameral, as they have two cases for each letter, e.g. B and b, Б and б, Β and β, or Բ and բ. Individual characters can also be called unicameral if they are used as letters with a generally bicameral alphabet but have only one form for both cases; for example, the ʻokina as used in Polynesian languages and the glottal stop as used in Nuu-chah-nulth are unicameral.

Most modern writing systems originated as unicase orthographies. The Latin script originally had only majuscule forms directly derived from the Greek alphabet, which were originally viable for being chiseled into stone. At the same time, everyday writing was carried out in a cursive variant of the block capitals, which during the Middle Ages evolved into new letterforms for use in running text that were more legible and faster to write with an ink pen, such as Carolingian minuscule. Originally, use of the two forms was mutually exclusive, but it became a common compromise to use both in tandem, which ultimately had additional benefits in areas such as legibility. The later minuscule became the "lowercase" forms, while the original majuscule became the "uppercase" forms.

Sanātana Dharma (Devanagari: सनातन धर्म, meaning "eternal dharma", or "eternal order") or Sanatanism is an alternative term for Hinduism, primarily used as an endonym (native name) to the exonym (foreign name) of Hinduism. The term is found in Sanskrit and other Indian languages.

The term denotes the "eternal" or absolute set of duties or religiously ordained practices incumbent upon all Hindus, regardless of class, caste, or sect. Many Hindus in the Indian subcontinent call themselves Sanatanis, that is, those who follow the 'eternal dharma', to evoke a certain homogeneity in Hinduism. Its use to signify Hinduism as a religion was popularised since the 19th century by champions of Hindu orthodoxy such as Pandit Shraddha Ram in reaction to missionaries and Hindu reformers such as Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj. Aside from its use in socio-religious contexts, it also sustains a political necessity for many Hindus.

Śruti or shruti (Sanskrit: श्रुति, IAST: Śruti, IPA: [ɕruti]) in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism. Manusmriti states: Śrutistu vedo vijñeyaḥ (Devanagari: श्रुतिस्तु वेदो विज्ञेयः) meaning, "Know that Vedas are Śruti". Thus, it includes the four Vedas including its four types of embedded texts—the Samhitas, the Upanishads, the Brahmanas and the Aranyakas.

Śrutis has been variously described as a revelation through anubhava (direct experience), or of primordial origins realized by ancient Rishis. In Hindu tradition, they have been referred to as apauruṣeya (not created by humans). The Śruti texts themselves assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.