Malayalam Fraction One Eighth

It marks one eighth, or half of a quarter.

Traditional Malayalam fraction vocabulary calls this amount arakkāl. Calculation texts known as Kaṇakkatikāram (treatises about calculation) place fractions beside units of weight, volume, distance, and time, then use them in problems involving paddy, rice, land, gold, wood, wages, and exchange. These are worked quantities; a problem about goods does not by itself record a real sale.

Researchers place a strand of the changing Kaṇakkatikāram tradition around the fifteenth century; an 1863 edition documents it. C. K. Moosathu’s 1980 book Prācīna Gaṇitaṃ Malayāḷattil (on ancient mathematics in Malayalam) includes a chart of the fraction names without dating their origin. The wider fraction set also has a Tamil counterpart, with names adapted to Tamil.

What does ൷ mean when someone sends it?

It still means one eighth; the quantity is unstated.

A 2013 Unicode proposal described these fraction signs as rare and named scholars preserving older Malayalam texts digitally among their likely users. A lone ൷ may be a quotation from a traditional calculation, but it does not say what quantity or unit the eighth applies to. Ask what amount the sender means.

How do I type ൷?

Use a Malayalam keyboard layout or character picker.

A character picker works when your keyboard layout does not include the sign. Key assignments depend on the selected layout; documentation from 2026 lists ൷ in the Malar Malayalam InScript layout, so there is no universal Latin-keyboard shortcut.