Grantha Letter Ma

It gives a Grantha syllable the consonant m and a built-in short a.

On its own, 𑌮 reads ma. A vowel sign changes that vowel; a virama, the mark that cancels it, leaves m able to join the next consonant.

Grantha developed from a southern form of Brahmi, an older South Asian script, under South India's Pallava rulers; its earliest forms are associated with Pallava kings in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Why was Grantha script used for Sanskrit?

It could distinguish Sanskrit sounds that Tamil writing did not mark separately.

Grantha was used especially for Sanskrit in the Tamil region, where Tamil writing did not distinguish some consonants pronounced with a puff of air or with vocal-cord vibration. The script also carried Pali and Prakrit, other classical Indian languages, and appears in inscriptions, palm-leaf manuscripts, and materials for Vedic study.

Tamil and Grantha mix in manuscripts and inscriptions, including commentaries, blessings, and colophons—notes at a manuscript’s end. Early printed editions obscured some of this mixed practice: setting two scripts was technically difficult, and nationalist policies opposing Brahmin influence also played a part. Grantha is historically connected with the scripts used for Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhala, and Thai.

Why does 𑌮 look different or disappear?

Font support and script shaping affect what appears on screen.

The font must include Grantha characters. If it does not, correctly entered text can appear blank.

Vowel signs attach to or shift around a consonant, while Grantha 𑌮 plus virama suppresses the vowel. These shaped forms can differ from the bare letter without being another character.