Saurashtra Letter A

ꢂ is Saurashtra’s independent vowel letter a. It writes a standalone a at the beginning of a syllable; a consonant can carry an inherent a without this separate letter.

Saurashtra script history begins in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the language was written with a form of Telugu script. The modern alphabet developed in the 1880s. T. M. Rama Rai later reformed the script, cast type, and published books.

Why are several scripts used for Saurashtra?

The Saurashtra language has been written in several scripts. It is an Indo-Aryan language related to Gujarati. The Saurashtra script and Tamil script are two writing systems used for it; Telugu and Devanagari were used too.

A 1920 decision adopted Devanagari, while Tamil was also used in practice; as of 2026, Unicode describes Tamil script as the usual route for writing the language. The native script appears in identity-marking, sacred or ritual material, signboards, magazines, and community teaching. A message using ꢂ is visibly set in that script and can signal Saurashtra identity.

Can an old Saurashtra letter look different?

An older form may reflect a different writing convention. A primer, or beginner’s book, from 1876 shows different character inventory and glyph shapes; later reforms simplified some forms. Unicode supports older and modern conventions, so compare the surrounding alphabet before treating an archival form as ꢂ.