What ൦ means
It holds an empty decimal place.
In a Malayalam numeral such as ൧൦ (10), ൦ shows that the ones place is empty. That empty slot keeps the values of the other digits in order.
Why do Malayalam numbers use ൰?
Older notation used separate signs for larger units.
൰, ൱, and ൲ are traditional Malayalam signs for 10, 100, and 1,000. They let the older system write larger numbers without zero. The modern place-value system uses ൦ for an empty place; Tamil's historic numerals have a closely related pattern.
Malayalam was first written in Vatteluttu, an older script; the Vazhappalli stone inscription, the oldest known Malayalam text, dates to about 830 CE. The modern Malayalam script evolved from Grantha, a script used for Sanskrit. The zero digit came much later: Malayalam introduced it in 1850 or later, and a 1913 Malayalam grammar shows it in print.
How do I type ൦?
In Malar Malayalam InScript 1.0, switch to Malayalam and press 0.
Other Malayalam keyboard layouts may map it differently.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ൦ look different in some Unicode charts?
An earlier chart image was reported to show a one-half-like form in the zero slot. Unicode's 2005 public review asked for evidence on the correct oval zero glyph. That report concerned the chart image, not an alternate zero value.
How to type ൦
൦\0D66Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.