  We examine the behavior of an anisotropic brane-world in the presence of
inflationary scalar fields. We show that, contrary to naive expectations, a
large anisotropy does not adversely affect inflation. On the contrary, a large
initial anisotropy introduces more damping into the scalar field equation of
motion, resulting in greater inflation. The rapid decay of anisotropy in the
brane-world significantly increases the class of initial conditions from which
the observed universe could have originated. This generalizes a similar result
in general relativity. A unique feature of Bianchi I brane-world cosmology
appears to be that for scalar fields with a large kinetic term the initial
expansion of the universe is quasi-isotropic. The universe grows more
anisotropic during an intermediate transient regime until anisotropy finally
disappears during inflationary expansion.

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;Astrophysics;High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;High Energy Physics - Theory