Odia Sign Anusvara

It marks a nasal sound inside an Odia word.

Before a stop consonant—a sound made by briefly closing airflow, such as k or t—it stands for the nasal made in the same part of the mouth. Before other consonants, it still marks a nasal sound; the word determines the reading.

At the end of ଏବଂ (“and”), it is part of that word’s spelling. Read it with the word around it, not as a separate reaction.

Where did the Odia anusvara come from?

It belongs to an Odia script descended from Brahmi.

The Odia script developed from Kalinga, a descendant of Brahmi, an older Indian script. The earliest known Odia-language inscription in Kalinga script dates to 1051. Odia’s rounded forms are associated with palm-leaf writing, where straight strokes could split the leaf.

Inside a word, ଅଂକ can stand for the more explicit spelling ଅଙ୍କ: the Odia letter ଙ followed by the virama mark ୍, which removes its usual vowel, before କ. The anusvara compresses that nasal-plus-virama cluster. Sanskrit anusvara conventions vary; Odia uses ଂ for the compact nasal before a stop and ଁ for a nasalized vowel.

How do I type ଂ on Windows?

Select an Odia keyboard first; its layout determines the key.

On Windows, as of 2026, InScript maps keys directly to Odia characters. Phonetic input turns Latin-letter typing into Odia suggestions, so check which mode is active.