Modi Letter E

It writes an independent e vowel in Modi.

An independent vowel is written on its own, with no consonant before it; 𑘊 marks the e at the start of a syllable. After a consonant, Modi uses the attached vowel sign 𑘹. The sign modifies a consonant; this letter stands alone.

Modi letter e vs Modi vowel sign e: the first stands alone; the sign attaches to a consonant.

Why was Modi script used?

It was shaped for fast, continuous writing.

Modi derives from the Nagari family of scripts and was adapted for continuous writing. Marathi use is documented from the fifteenth century; Unicode's history dates Modi's emergence to the sixteenth century and its oldest surviving document to the early seventeenth century.

Marathi scribes used Modi for letters and revenue records; Balbodh, a Devanagari form used for Marathi, served literary and sacred texts. In the nineteenth century, print favored Balbodh because it could represent more Marathi speech sounds. Modi use declined, and Devanagari became Marathi's standard script in the 1950s.