What 𑁤 means
It is Brahmi’s sign for one hundred.
The Brahmi numeral system is attested by the middle of the third century BCE. It used separate signs for tens, 100, and 1,000, so values were added rather than carried by digit position. Brahmi writing appears in inscriptions, including official orders.
On coins of the Western Kshatrapas, an ancient Indian ruling house, 𑁤 marked the hundreds part of dates: it stood alone for 100 and was followed by the sign for four for 104. Firm inscriptional evidence for positional decimal notation is dated 595 CE. Later Brahmi decimal digits and today’s Hindu-Arabic numerals belong to a related descendant tradition; neither is another form of 𑁤.
Why does the joined form mean 400?
The joiner makes the following number a multiplier. Without it, 𑁤𑁖 adds 100 and 4 to make 104; with it, 𑁤𑁿𑁖 means 100 multiplied by 4, or 400.
Unicode 16.0.0 defines the Brahmi Number Joiner as the distinction between additive sequences and ligated multiples. If a font cannot shape the joined form, the joiner should still have a visible fallback; a box or broken sequence points to font or text-shaping support.
A specialist historical numeral for Brahmi texts, inscriptions, and Unicode shaping work.
Without 𑁿, 𑁤𑁖 reads 104, not 400.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𑁤
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Related characters
2
Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Why does 𑁤 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 𑁤
- Search it as
- Brahmi 100 · Brahmi numeral 100 · Brahmi numerals · Brahmi Number Joiner · Indian numerals
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𑁤\11064Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.