Dear Matthew and friends,

allow me to correct myself.

The Brahmi script is the predecessor of the Devanagari script.
Modern Sanskrit and Hindi use the Devanagari script. Pali can be
written in Devanagari or even Brahmi, if you want to. In the
academic and Buddhist communities, the Roman script is preferred. In
South Asian countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, etc. Pali
is written in the local script. That is to say, in Thai suttas for
example, Pali is still Pali but written in a different 'alphabet'.
That is to say the scriptures remain untranslated in its original
form. It is just like writing Pali in the Roman script, and not
translating it into English or other European languages. So, if you
understand the Brahmi and Devanagari writing system (it is not as
easy as you see on the webpages), you can write out any piece of
Pali literature in those scripts.

metta,
Yong Peng

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Ong Yong Peng wrote:
The script used during Buddha's time by the Northern Indian was
Brahmi, the ancestor to Devanagari, Sanskrit and Hindi:
http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi.html