Kaithi Sign Nukta

Enter the base consonant first, then the nukta.

The nukta is not punctuation: it changes the consonant's value. In documented spellings, the Kaithi consonant labeled BA in Latin transliteration takes a VA value with nukta; YA plus nukta supplies a Z value. JA, KA, KHA, and PHA can also take it for Urdu consonant sounds conventionally written z, q, kh, and f. These forms are transliteration labels, not Kaithi glyphs.

What is known about the Kaithi nukta's history?

It was a later addition to a script used for everyday records.

Kaithi's origins are unclear. A 2007 encoding proposal treats an inscription linked to a ruler active around 1090 as a possible early record of the script, if the inscription is correctly identified; the same proposal describes Kaithi as significant by the 17th century. Kaithi served administration, courts, business records, schooling, private letters, and print. The nukta appears in only some sources and is described as a later addition for writing extra consonant values.

How is the Kaithi mark related to Devanagari?

They share a script family, not a direct parent-child history.

Kaithi and Devanagari are related Brahmic scripts, described as parallel developments from an older source rather than one as the direct ancestor of the other. Devanagari influenced Kaithi's nukta practice for sounds outside Hindi's sound system. Kaithi served Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Awadhi, Urdu, and neighboring traditions; Devanagari later became preferred for formal use in many settings.