Siddham Letter I

It is the Sanskrit i in “machine,” held briefly.

𑖂 stands alone; 𑖰 attaches to a consonant to add i; 𑖃 is the separate long-i letter.

Regional and calligraphic fonts can draw this encoded letter differently.

Siddham grew from Gupta writing

Siddham developed from the Gupta script, descended from the older Indian Brahmi script, and was used for Buddhist texts in Sanskrit. North Indian inscriptions use Siddhamātrikā for forms from the sixth to about tenth century.

From around the eighth century, Siddhamātrikā branched into Sharada in Kashmir and Punjab, Proto-Bengali/Gauḍī in Bengal and Odisha, and Nāgarī elsewhere in North India. Buddhist manuscripts also carried Siddham east to China, Korea, and Japan.