Grantha Letter Dda

Grantha ḍa is a voiced d made with the tongue curled back.

That curled-back articulation is called retroflex. A bare 𑌡 carries a short a, so the syllable is ḍa; the sign 𑌾 changes it to long ā, while virāma 𑍍 removes the vowel.

Grantha is used for Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit texts. This letter marks a sound Tamil writing does not set apart with a dedicated consonant letter.

How did Grantha develop?

It developed in southern India within the wider Brahmi script tradition.

Early Grantha forms are associated with Pallava rule in the 5th–6th centuries. The name grantha means a book or a bundle of leaves, recalling manuscripts written on palm leaves.

Writers used Grantha for Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, on temple inscriptions and palm-leaf manuscripts, and later in printed books. Its historical ties include Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Sinhala scripts; its wider Brahmi connections reach Southeast Asia, including Thai. The modern period brought printed books and digital fonts; traditional Vedic schools still use Grantha as of 2026.

How do I type 𑌡?

Choose Ḍa on a Grantha transliteration keyboard.

On the Lexilogos Grantha layout, uppercase D enters ḍa; lowercase d selects dental da, a different consonant. Other layouts can assign keys differently.

Attach a vowel sign to change the vowel, or use 𑍍 for a consonant without its inherent a. If 𑌡 appears as a box or blank, the font lacks Grantha support; Unicode encodes the character, while fonts draw it.