Saurashtra Letter Pha

It is the Saurashtra letter for an aspirated p.

An aspirated p is released with a noticeable puff of air. The Saurashtra script belongs to the Brahmic family, whose writing systems build syllables from consonants and vowel marks. A consonant carries a default vowel when unmarked, so bare ꢧ includes a; a vowel sign changes that vowel.

An Aksharavali (alphabet primer) dated 1876 is an early printed example. A lithographic Saurashtra version is reported for 1876–1880. In the 1880s, modernization simplified the script: many older conjunct forms gave way to a visible virama, a mark that cancels a consonant’s built-in vowel.

Why was a separate Saurashtra script developed?

It gave the language a modern script shaped for print.

Since the late 19th century, books in Saurashtra have appeared in Saurashtra, Tamil, Telugu, and Devanagari scripts. A community conference in 1898 assigned T. M. Ramarai to shape an independent print form. His grammar appeared in 1905 and documents the script’s teaching use, alongside its literary use.

The Saurashtra language is related to Gujarati, another Indo-Aryan language; that is a language connection, not a claim that the two scripts are one.

How do I type Saurashtra pha?

Use a Saurashtra keyboard layout for longer text.

Keyman lists Saurashtra InScript layouts for desktop, mobile, and web as of 2026. The key position for pha depends on the selected layout.

The active font also needs Saurashtra glyph coverage. Noto Sans Saurashtra documents support for the script as of 2026.