Gujarati letter ja

જ marks the Gujarati ja consonant in written words.

In Gujarati, a consonant carries an inherent vowel, so bare જ is read as ja. A virama removes that vowel and lets the consonant join another one.

Gujarati developed in relation to Devanagari and Brahmi; unlike Devanagari, it has no continuous top line. Literary Old Gujarati is attested by the 12th century, and a commentary on the Jain work Updeshmala is dated 1487. The script also served commerce and was associated with bankers and traders. After 1800, metal type helped establish modern Gujarati printing. In later Parsi Gujarati, a dot called a nukta on જ could mark a sound or word of Perso-Arabic origin.