健驮逻语

健馱邏语( Gāndhārī)也称普拉克利特语(Prakrit)或 "中印度-雅利安"语。 健馱邏文是以亚拉姆语字母从右往左书写的。 At the time of its adoption, Gandhāra was controlled by the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian empire, which used a similar script to write the related Iranian languages of the Empire. This alphabet also sets Gāndhārī apart as a unique set of dialects of the Middle Indo-Aryan period; Semitic scripts were not used to write Indian languages again until the arrival of Islam and subsequent adoption of the Persian-style Arabic alphabet for New Indo-Aryan languages like Urdu, Sindhi and Kashmiri. This unique writing system died out about the 4th century, though descendants of these distinct regional dialects are still spoken today.

Portraits from the site of Hadda, Gandhara, 3rd century. Guimet Museum.Gandhāra is also thought to be the location of the mystical Lake Dhanakosha, birthplace of Padmasambhava, founder of Tibetan Buddhism. The bKa' brgyud (Kagyu) sect of Tibetan Buddhism identifies the lake with Andan Dheri stupa, located near the tiny village of Uchh near Chakdara in the lower Swat Valley. A spring was said to flow from the base of the stupa to form the lake. Archaeologists have found the stupa but no spring or lake can be identified.

The Gandharan Buddhist texts are both the earliest Buddhist texts ever discovered and the earliest Indian manuscripts ever discovered. Most are composed on birchbark and were found in labeled clay pots.