Devanagari Letter Vocalic Ll

It marks an L sound that can form a syllable’s center.

The transliteration ḹ names its long value. In Sanskrit phonetics, “vocalic” means the L sound can sit where a vowel usually sits, at the center of a syllable; the long form holds that sound for long-vowel length. Modern Sanskrit lessons keep ॡ to complete the short–long pair with ऌ, but say it has no ordinary Sanskrit word use. Earlier phonetic authorities disagreed: some omitted or rejected long vocalic L, while others accepted it.

Devanagari descends from Brahmi. Ashoka’s royal inscriptions, among the oldest lengthy inscriptions from India, were written in Brahmi in the third century BCE; by the eleventh century, Devanagari was a major script of Sanskrit literature. Brahmi also has a letter named vocalic LL, 𑀎. It belongs to the older script lineage but is a separate glyph, not another form of ॡ.