Modi Letter Va

It is the Modi consonant called va. A vowel mark changes its sound; a virama, the mark that removes a consonant’s built-in vowel, can leave it without that vowel. Alone, it is part of a word, not a message.

Modi’s flowing handwriting allowed faster writing with fewer pen lifts than Devanagari, another script used for Marathi. Marathi records in Modi date to the fifteenth century; its forms changed across the sixteenth through twentieth centuries.

Modi served for letters and revenue records, sometimes alongside Persian-language text. Balbodh, the Devanagari style used for Marathi literary and sacred writing, had a different role. In the nineteenth century, print favored Balbodh and Modi declined.