Khojki Sign Sukun

It marks a pause or a consonant without its usual short vowel. In Khojki transliteration of Arabic, 𑈾 can signal a pause during recitation or show that a consonant has no short vowel after it. The surrounding word and passage decide which reading fits.

Khojki is a Brahmi-derived script in the Landa family, whose forms were used for trade; it developed from Lohānākī, a Sindhi form. It was adapted for Ismaili religious writing, including ginans (devotional poems), and also carried Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi, Siraiki, Arabic, and Persian.

Accounts differ on Khojki's earliest manuscript evidence: one places its use in the sixteenth century, while a Khojki manuscript study cites 1737 as the earliest written evidence. Tradition credits Pir Sadruddin with creating the script, but a 2022 study questions that attribution. The sign is attested in a printed Agakhani Khoja dua (devotional prayer text) dated 1969.

Is Khojki sukun the same as Arabic sukun or virama?

It follows Arabic sukun's model; Khojki virama differs. Arabic sukun ْ is the model, but 𑈾 is a distinct Khojki mark. Khojki virama 𑈵 can also indicate a consonant without its usual vowel, but it has extra control behavior that 𑈾 does not. Use the mark belonging to the script and spelling you are reading.