Grantha Letter Va

It marks a consonant, not a word with its own meaning. A vowel mark changes its built-in short a; a virama mark removes it.

Grantha evolved from Brahmi, an older Indian script. Inscriptions of early Pallava rulers in southern India preserve intermediate forms by the fourth century CE.

Grantha letters joined Tamil text when Sanskrit needed consonant distinctions the Tamil script did not mark separately. It also wrote Sanskrit in Manipravalam, a literary mix of Tamil and Sanskrit. Grantha-Malayalam preceded reformed Malayalam; Tulu-Tigalari is a sister script influenced by Grantha. Today Grantha chiefly writes Sanskrit, including Vedic texts. A box usually means the font or app lacks Grantha support.