What ꢟ means
It marks a voiced ḍha with an extra puff of air.
The sound is conventionally transliterated ḍha. The tongue tip bends toward the roof of the mouth; “voiced” means the vocal cords vibrate, and aspiration is the puff of breath after the consonant.
Saurashtra consonants normally carry an inherent “a” vowel; a following vowel sign changes the syllable. The 1876 primer’s letter inventory differs substantially from the modern proposal, and the modernized printed script developed in the 1880s.
Who shaped the modern Saurashtra script?
T. M. Rama Rai helped shape its modern printed form.
He cast type and published Saurashtra books, helping standardize a modern form. Saurashtra is spoken by communities in multilingual South India.
The script belongs to the broader Brahmic tradition of South Asian writing. The Saurashtra language is related to Gujarati, and it has also been written in Tamil, Telugu, and Devanagari scripts. These are alternate ways to write the language.
When does Saurashtra script carry cultural meaning?
The message setting can give the script an identity or ritual role.
In 2003, Saurashtra script was documented on community signboards as an identity marker and on wedding invitations with cultural or ritual significance. Readers who know Saurashtra can read ꢟ as spelling; other recipients may need a transliteration or short gloss.
As of February 2024, teaching groups, publications, and locally made digital fonts supported preservation work.
Specialist spelling; the Saurashtra script can also mark community or ritual context.
A recipient who cannot read Saurashtra may not decode the letter unaided.
Part of the collection
Who writes ꢟ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsA voiced, aspirated consonant that contributes to the word’s syllable.
Don't confuse it with
2Questions people ask
1Why does this Saurashtra letter look different in different fonts?
Different outlines are normal: fonts draw the same letter differently, and older Saurashtra manuscripts also use shapes unlike later printed conventions.
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How to type or find ꢟ
- Also called
- Saurashtra letter ḍha · Sourashtra letter ḍha
- Search it as
- ddha · ḍha · Saurashtra · Sourashtra · Saurashtri · Saurashtra letter · Saurashtra script · Saurashtra keyboard
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ꢟ\A89FCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.