Kawi Letter Dda

It is a consonant letter whose base includes a built-in a vowel.

Dda is a distinct consonant in the Kawi inventory, separate from Da 𑼣. Its built-in vowel is normally a; the dependent vowel sign changes it, the killer 𑽁 suppresses it, and the conjoiner 𑽂 joins another consonant into a stack.

Kawi inscriptions and manuscripts show regional and period-specific forms. Fonts based on different examples can therefore draw 𑼞 differently while encoding the same letter.

Where did Kawi writing develop?

Kawi grew from Brahmi, an older South Asian writing system.

An early Kawi record is the Plumpungan stele, a carved stone inscription near Salatiga dated around 750 CE. Kawi carried records and religious, legal, and literary texts on stone, copper plates, and manuscripts. The Laguna Copperplate inscription, found in the Philippines, dates to 900 CE.

People wrote Old Javanese, Sanskrit, Old Malay, Old Balinese, and Old Sundanese in Kawi. Its inscriptions and manuscripts are found from Java and Sumatra through Bali and the Malay Peninsula to the Philippines. Kawi became a historical ancestor of scripts including Javanese and Balinese. In the 21st century, interest in Kawi revived, including some social-media use for modern Javanese or Indonesian.