Sharada Letter Lla

It contributes a consonant sound inside a written syllable. In Sharada, 𑆭 is called lla and commonly transliterated ḷ; it represents a retroflex lateral, an l pronounced with the tongue tip curled back. Sharada is an abugida, a script where each consonant carries an inherent a vowel. Vowel signs change that vowel, and the virama mark removes it.

The history of Sharada is gradual: the script developed from Gupta Brahmi through Kutila. Proto-Sharada transitional forms span the 6th to 10th centuries; inscriptions show Sharada proper by the 8th century. The Bakhshali manuscript, a Sanskrit mathematics treatise, is identified as the earliest Sharada manuscript and dated to the 12th century. A stone inscription from Hund, dated 774–775 CE, is proposed as earlier, but its Sharada classification is disputed.

What did Sharada write, and what followed?

Sharada carried texts in several northern South Asian languages. It was used for Sanskrit, Kashmiri, and other languages on inscriptions, coins, copper plates, and manuscripts. Its works include literary, religious, and mathematical texts; 𑆭 takes its role from the word it forms.

Sharada developed through Devaśeṣa into regional forms such as Takri, Landa, and Gurmukhi; these are historical connections, not guesses from similar shapes. By the 13th century, such regional descendants were replacing it in wider use. In the 19th century, Persian script for Kashmiri and the growth of Devanagari further marginalized Sharada. As of 2026, Unicode describes surviving use as limited to Kashmiri Pandit rituals and horoscope writing.

Why might 𑆭 look blank or mis-shaped?

Font coverage and text shaping are separate issues.

A Sharada font without this glyph may show a blank or fallback box. Even with font coverage, an app's shaping engine can misplace vowel signs. As of 2026, the Satisar project reports that some Microsoft applications overlap stacked syllables and recommends a HarfBuzz-based app such as LibreOffice.