Bengali Candrabindu

Use a Bengali input method, then attach it to the right syllable.

In stored text, ঁ follows the vowel sign, though Bengali shaping displays it above the base consonant. Avro, Probhat, and other Bengali layouts may use different shortcuts. The mark belongs to the syllable whose vowel changes.

What sound does Bengali candrabindu add?

It makes the syllable’s vowel nasal.

Air passes through the nose as you say the vowel; the sign has no separate sound. Compare বা (“or”) with বাঁ (“left”): the mark changes the vowel and the word.

In Vedic Sanskrit, anunāsika means a nasalized vowel and is distinguished from anusvāra, a nasal sound or its written sign. In Hindi spelling, anusvāra can sometimes replace candrabindu when an upper vowel sign leaves no room.

Where does the sign’s history begin?

Its written history reaches back centuries.

An account of Indian inscriptions reports no example of the modern anunāsika before the 11th century and suggests it developed from anusvāra to mark nasalization in Vedic manuscripts, written copies of ancient Sanskrit texts. A 1456 manuscript from eastern India, written in an earlier form of Bengali script, contains the sign; its editor identifies it as anunāsika or candrabindu. Bengali script developed from Brahmi through eastern script forms, so the digital character records an older writing practice.