Combining Grantha Letter Vi

It marks vinata, a special Sāma-Veda singing manner.

In the Gāna, the sung part of the Sāma Veda, a svara mark shows a note or pitch in the tune. VI is added to that mark to show vinata, a special way of singing the note; it sits above the syllable being sung.

Where did the Grantha script come from?

Grantha developed from Brahmi through Pallava forms.

Intermediate forms are attested in early Pallava inscriptions by the fourth century CE; the modern form of Grantha represented in Unicode belongs after the thirteenth century CE.

Grantha was used in southern India to write Sanskrit, including Vedic texts, and could appear alongside Tamil in inscriptions and manuscripts. It also supplied the Sanskrit passages in Manipravalam, a mixed Sanskrit-Tamil literary style. Manuscript studies find such mixing in commentaries, blessings, and colophons—short notes at a manuscript’s end.