Kannada letter sa

It is the Kannada consonant sa. It carries a built-in “a”; a vowel mark changes that vowel, and the virama cancels it. A following consonant may form a joined shape called a conjunct.

Kannada descends from Brahmi, an ancient Indian script, through early Telugu–Kannada forms. These forms appear in inscriptions from the 4th–7th centuries CE; Kannada inscriptions date from about the 5th century CE, with the Halmidi inscription often treated as the earliest. Inscriptions recorded royal grants, religion, and social and economic life.