Bengali vowel sign e

It supplies the vowel e after a consonant. Also called ekar, it replaces the vowel a Bengali consonant normally carries without an added mark. In কে, ক supplies k and ে supplies e: Bengali ke.

Why does ে appear on the left?

Display order differs from character order. The text-rendering system draws the sign before its consonant even though Unicode stores it after. Do not rearrange the characters to match what you see.

A conjunct is a joined group of consonants; the sign can appear before the whole group. With a visible virama—the mark suppressing a consonant’s vowel—placement can instead follow the last consonant.

Where did this writing convention come from?

It belongs to Bengali’s inherited system of attached vowels. Bengali evolved from eastern branches of Brahmi, an ancient Indian script. Recognisable Bengali forms appear in 11th–12th-century records; that dates the script’s development, not the first use of this exact mark. Assamese also uses this writing system.