Brahmi Letter Ba

It writes the consonant b, usually followed by a short a. In Brahmi, a historical South Asian script, consonants normally carry that short vowel unless a vowel sign changes it. A virama—a mark that cancels the built-in vowel—after 𑀩 removes the a and can join the consonant to the next one. In the Old Tamil form of Brahmi, used to write Tamil, a bare consonant may be written without that vowel.

The earliest dated Brahmi examples reported from South Asia are inscribed pottery fragments at Anuradhapura, from the beginning of the fourth century BCE. Ashoka, a ruler in ancient South Asia, issued inscriptions in the 3rd-century BCE that carried moral and administrative guidance.

Brahmi was used to write several languages, including Prakrit, an ancient South Asian language, Sanskrit, and Tamil. Regional forms of the script led to later scripts such as Devanagari and the Tamil script.

Why does 𑀩 change shape or show as a box?

The font and text shaping determine how it appears. A Brahmi-capable font and text-shaping support—software that positions script parts—are needed to display it correctly. Some fonts stack consonants in clusters or use different styles for consonants without a vowel sign. Those are display conventions, not different letters. A box usually means the font or app lacks Brahmi support.