What ꣪ means
It marks a brief recitation in Sāmagāna. Sāmagāna is the sung recitation of the Sāmaveda; the sign tells a chanter to recite a passage as abhigīta. Its position above a base character is part of the notation.
A 2007 proposal records ꣪ in Sāmagāna; it documents use by then, not the practice's beginning. A font or text engine that mishandles Devanagari mark positioning may display ꣪ apart from its base.
Specialist notation for Sāmaveda chanting, not everyday Devanagari spelling.
Do not substitute ꣪ for अ in ordinary writing.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ꣪ look detached?
It can happen when a font or text engine fails to position the mark with its base; the notation still attaches it to that character.
How to type ꣪
꣪\A8EACodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.