Grantha Letter Gha

It is Grantha's gha letter: voiced g with a puff of breath. It contributes that consonant to Sanskrit and related Indo-Aryan spellings.

Grantha developed in South India to spell Sanskrit distinctions that Tamil writing did not mark separately, including voiced and aspirated consonants. This letter is part of that writing system.

Where did this letter come from?

Grantha grew from southern Brahmi through the Pallava tradition. Intermediate forms are attested from the fourth century; recognizable Grantha examples appear in early Pallava inscriptions of the 5th–6th centuries. Later examples occur in Chola- and Pandya-era inscriptions, copper plates, temple walls, and manuscripts.

Brahmi is the older source, and Pallava was an early South Indian branch. The Malayalam script later developed from a Grantha form. Tamil remained a neighboring script with a different spelling system; Pallava writing also traveled into Southeast Asia and influenced scripts that became Khmer and Thai.

How do I type 𑌘?

Use a Grantha-aware Unicode keyboard or input method. Unicode support alone does not guarantee that your font and editor can shape Grantha correctly.

Grantha is an alphabet-like script with an unmarked vowel after each bare consonant. A vowel sign changes that vowel; the virama cancels it so consonants can cluster. So 𑌘 is a building block, not always a complete syllable.