Indic

Manuscript folio in Sanskrit. Wellcome Collection, London

In scholarship, term most frequently referring to the Indo-Aryan family of languages and their scripts — including Sanskrit, Brahmi and Kharoshthi — or more generally to the classical, Sanskritic culture of the Indian subcontinent. Precursors of Sanskrit, known only through linguistic reconstruction, have been given names such as Old Indic and Middle Indic by specialists. The word ‘Indic’ derives from the Latin Indicus, meaning ‘of India’, and has been in use since the seventeenth century at least, often used loosely to mean ‘having to do with India’.