Ol Chiki Letter Edd

It marks a retroflex d: the tongue tip curls back for it.

In Santali, ᱰ marks this consonant inside a word. Latin transliteration commonly writes it as ḍ. By itself, the character is a letter sample, not a whole word.

Raghunath Murmu is associated with the first Ol Chiki design in 1925. He developed printing blocks and a hand press in the 1930s and showed them at the 1939 Mayurbhanj State exhibition. These steps made the script visible through printing and public display.

Why was Ol Chiki created?

It was designed to write Santali's sounds more directly.

Before Ol Chiki, Santali was also written in Latin, Devanagari, Bengali, and Odia scripts. Those spellings did not consistently mark Santali's sound contrasts. Murmu's design gives vowels and consonants their own letters, including ᱰ.

The script's public role grew beyond spelling. The Indian state of Odisha sponsored Ol Chiki schoolbooks in the 1960s; in the early 1970s, print and rallies used it to present Santal voices. A 2017 study of Santali print media describes a split among editors in Purulia: older editors kept Eastern Brahmi-family scripts, regional scripts descended from Brahmi, while younger editors moved to Ol Chiki. In 2026, India's president described Ol Chiki as a symbol of Santal identity.

How do I type ᱰ?

Choose a Santali input layout and a font that supports Ol Chiki.

On the documented Santali phonetic keyboard, uppercase D enters ḍ. Project Ol Chiki also documents Sarjom Baha and InScript layouts; the key depends on which layout is installed.

If it appears as a blank square, the app or selected font may not support Ol Chiki. Choose a font with Ol Chiki coverage; different fonts can draw the same character with different outlines.