Sharada letter ī

It is Sharada’s independent letter for a held i vowel. Think of the i in “machine,” held longer; scholarly transliteration writes it as ī. Use 𑆆 when the vowel stands alone. After a consonant, Sharada uses the separate sign 𑆵. The 2012 Unicode date marks digital encoding, not the age of Sharada writing.

How old is Sharada writing?

Its early evidence includes an inscription, coins, and a manuscript. The earliest record is debated: a Hund inscription is dated 774–775 CE, while Kashmir coins from the 9th–10th centuries are also early evidence. The earliest Sharada manuscript is the Bakhshali manuscript, a 12th-century work about mathematics.

Sharada was Kashmir’s principal script for inscriptions and literature from the 8th through the 20th centuries, writing Sanskrit, Kashmiri, and other northern South Asian languages. In the 13th century, the regional Devāśeṣa form replaced it in parts of the region and later gave rise to Takri. Sharada is also structurally related to Devanagari, Gurmukhi, and Landa. In the 19th century, wider Arabic-script use for Kashmiri and growing Devanagari use reduced Sharada’s role. As of 2026, practical use is specialized, including ritual writing and horoscopes among Kashmiri Pandits, a Kashmiri Hindu community; scholars also study the script.

Why can this letter appear as a box?

The active font may not include Sharada glyphs. Unicode text can still contain the correct character, but the font must draw its shape. Without Sharada coverage, it may appear as a box or fallback mark.