Sundanese Avagraha

It usually doubles a preceding consonant.

Old Sundanese consonants carry an inherent “a” sound. In manuscripts, ᮺ can double a consonant across a syllable edge or dependent vowel; an edition may show the mark as a colon.

It also suppresses the inherent “a” before a following independent a, keeping a hiatus—a break between vowels. In ᮃᮜᮥᮔᮺᮌᮥᮀ, a strict transliteration gives alun:agung and a normalized spelling gives alun-agung; without the separation, it could read as alungung.

Why is this mark called “avagraha”?

The label follows an analogy, not its main job.

The Indian avagraha marks an omitted vowel. Old Sundanese manuscript evidence instead shows consonant doubling as ᮺ’s most common function, with hiatus as another use.

Unicode 18.0 describes Old Sundanese as derived from Pallawa and used in the Sunda Kingdom from the 14th to the 18th century; it names Prasasti Kawali as the script’s earliest example. The mark appears in palm-leaf manuscripts such as Bhima Swarga, Saṅhyaṅ Siksa Kandaṅ Karəsian, Saṅhyaṅ Swawar Cinta, and Bujaṅga Manik.

A Unicode proposal suggests ᮺ may have reused the shape of Kawi’s long-aa vowel sign. That is a proposed link, not a proven descent.

How should I read it in a modern edition?

Treat it as a historical spelling mark.

Modern Sundanese uses the separate vowel-killer ᮪ to cancel a consonant’s inherent vowel; ᮺ belongs to historical writing. In contemporary prose, its appearance points to a historical quotation or scholarly edition.

A scholarly transliteration tracks source signs closely; a transcription may normalize spelling. The DHARMA transliteration guide distinguishes ka: (long vowel) from k:a (consonant doubling), so a colon’s position matters.