Kaithi Letter Da

It writes “da,” usually with an inherent “a.” A vowel sign changes the vowel; the Kaithi virama suppresses it before another consonant, which may form a conjunct.

Kaithi served practical writing in North India: people used it for court and administrative work, commercial transactions, correspondence, and personal records, as well as religious and literary works. A copper-plate land grant associated with Baj Bahadur Chandradeva, around 1090, has been proposed as an early Kaithi record, but that identification is uncertain. Secure documentary use reaches at least the 16th century. Bihar made Kaithi official for courts and administrative offices in 1880; Devanagari eclipsed it in administrative communication in the early 20th century.

Kaithi grew from Brahmi, an early Indian writing system, and is historically related to Devanagari and Gujarati. It was used for languages including Bhojpuri, Magahi, Awadhi, Maithili, and Urdu. The letter’s reading depends on the surrounding word and language.

Why does 𑂠 look different across fonts?

The font can change its outline while the character stays the same. Kaithi has three presentation styles generally associated with Bhojpuri, Magahi, and Maithili; the code-chart glyph uses the Magahi style. Kaithi normally lacks Devanagari’s headstroke, though some fonts show a headstroke-like line. In manuscripts and books, a similar line can also be a ruled line over the writing rather than part of each letter.