Grantha Letter Aa

It is Grantha’s independent letter for the long ā sound.

The Grantha long-a vowel is written 𑌆 when no consonant comes before it; 𑌾 is the dependent vowel sign used with a consonant.

Grantha was developed in South India to write Sanskrit. Tamil writing did not represent some Sanskrit consonant distinctions in the same way, such as whether a sound vibrates in the throat or is released with a puff of breath. Intermediate Grantha forms appear in early Pallava inscriptions from the fourth century CE; the form represented by modern Grantha reflects a stage after the thirteenth century.

Why did Grantha share space with Tamil?

It let scribes write Tamil and Sanskrit in separate scripts.

Tamil text was commonly written in Tamil script and Sanskrit in Grantha, though inscriptions and manuscripts could mix them. Manipravalam, a Tamil–Sanskrit literary mixture, could use both scripts in one work.

Grantha grew from Brahmi, an older writing system, through script forms used under the Pallavas, a dynasty in South India. Tamil and Malayalam scripts also belong to related southern Brahmic traditions. Their letters may resemble one another, but the scripts are not interchangeable.

How do I type 𑌆?

A Grantha transliteration keyboard can produce the long vowel.

Lexilogos maps aa or A to this long vowel as of 2026; other Grantha layouts may use different keys.