What 𑁫 means
It means five in Brahmi’s later decimal digits. A Brahmi numeral 5 is not one timeless notation: the earliest system, attested by the mid-3rd century BCE in inscriptions, cave records, and coins, used separate signs for ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. People used those numerals to record quantities, dates, and donations.
𑁫 belongs to the later base-ten (decimal) digit set, found alongside the older notation in late Brahmi manuscripts and inscriptions. By 595 CE, firm inscriptional evidence shows fully positional notation, where a digit’s place determines its value. In the Gupta period, numeral forms developed from Brahmi and later contributed to Nagari forms, part of a longer history of changing numeral writing.
How do I type Brahmi digit five?
On Linux, use Unicode hexadecimal input where supported. Press Ctrl+Shift+U, enter 1106B, then Enter. There is no universal Unicode input method; the route depends on your operating system and app. In HTML, the hexadecimal character reference 𑁫 represents it.
Why does it show as a box?
The font may lack Brahmi coverage. The text can still contain 𑁫 even if the selected font has no Brahmi glyph, so it may display a missing-glyph box. A font with Brahmi coverage can show the character; the value remains five.
A specialist character for working with Brahmi text and historical numerals, not casual numeric shorthand.
The older Brahmi sign for five is 𑁖; it belongs to a different numeral system.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Is Brahmi digit five an emoji?
No. It is a text character, so its displayed shape comes from the font rather than vendor-specific emoji artwork.
How to type 𑁫
𑁫\1106BCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.