Sharada Letter Ma

Use Unicode hex input that accepts five-digit codes.

To type Sharada ma with Unicode hex input, enter U+111A9 in a method that accepts more than four hexadecimal digits. If it displays as a square, the font may lack Sharada coverage; the text still contains the same character.

What sound does 𑆩 represent?

It writes Sharada ma, usually read “ma” by itself.

A Sharada consonant normally carries a built-in vowel a, so this letter alone forms the syllable ma. A vowel sign changes that vowel; a virama, a mark that removes it, leaves the consonant without a vowel. Some consonant sequences join into a conjunct, a combined consonant form.

Why did people use Sharada, and what followed it?

It carried writing across Kashmir and neighboring regions.

Sharada carried Sanskrit, Kashmiri, and other northern South Asian languages across Kashmir and neighboring regions, including Afghanistan, Gandhara, Gilgit, Chilas, Chitral, Ladakh, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. Records include inscriptions, coins, copper-plate land grants, and manuscripts on science, mathematics, Shaiva traditions centered on Shiva, Tantric practice, and other subjects.

Sharada developed from northwestern Brahmi; inscriptions attest to its use by the 8th century. An undated manuscript called the Bakhshali witness is assigned to the 12th century from its letter forms. Regional descendants displaced Sharada in parts of Punjab and Himachal by the 13th century, and Takri descends from Sharada. In the 19th century, wider Arabic-script Kashmiri writing and growing Devanagari use marginalized it. As of 2026, Kashmiri Pandits retain it for limited ritual and horoscope writing.