Sinhala Archaic Digit Three

It is the historic Sinhala Illakkam numeral for three.

This Sinhala numeral belonged to number writing used for ordinary calculations. Manuscript practices also used numerals to number leaves and mark literary material. A 2025 study reports Sinhala Illakkam in palm-leaf manuscripts dated 1754–1825. Its historical role was practical number writing.

Why doesn't 𑇣 look like modern 3?

It comes from a different Sinhala numeral tradition.

Early Sri Lankan rock inscriptions preserve numeral forms resembling those in Brahmi, an ancient South Asian script, including a sign for three. Later Sinhala Illakkam forms developed within Sinhala writing; the modern Unicode glyph should not be projected unchanged onto every ancient inscription.

Sinhala Illakkam is distinct from Sinhala Lith Illakkam, a numeral set used in astrological calendars, and Pansal Hodiya, a later system that numbered manuscript pages with Sinhala letters. These systems could coexist with Indo-Arabic and Tamil numerals in Sri Lankan manuscripts; the period and subject affected which system appeared.

How do I type this character?

Use a Unicode picker or supported Sinhala numeral input.

The ordinary 3 key inserts the everyday digit, not 𑇣. Search a character map or Unicode picker for “Sinhala Archaic Digit Three” or U+111E3. Some Sinhala keyboard standards include historic numeral input, but support varies by layout and app.