Saurashtra Letter Ttha

It is a curled-back t followed by a puff of breath. That tongue position is called retroflex; adding the breath is aspiration. ꢝ is the Saurashtra letter ttha, used as a consonant in Saurashtra words.

An alphabet primer called Aksharavali survives from 1876. Sourashtranadhi, a book by the scholar Lakshmanachariyar, was printed in 1880; a 2016 account describes it as the earliest available book in Saurashtra script. The modernized form took shape in the 1880s, simplifying older joined consonants. Modern writing usually leaves a virama—a mark that cancels a consonant’s built-in vowel—visible.

Why are there several ways to write Saurashtra?

Saurashtra script is one writing system for the Saurashtra language. The language is related to Gujarati and spoken in southern India. Saurashtra-speaking communities moved south from Gujarat over generations; silk weaving and trade are part of their history. Contact with Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil also influenced the language.

Saurashtra has been written in Tamil, Telugu, Devanagari, Roman letters, and its own script. Readers who know the language through another writing system may not recognize ꢝ immediately. A 2016 account describes a 1920 resolution in favor of Devanagari and also reports Saurashtra-script journals and a practice magazine in Madurai.

Why does ꢝ show as a box?

A font without Saurashtra coverage is the likely cause. If an app shows a box, it cannot draw the glyph with the current font; the character itself has not changed.