Takri Letter Ma

Use a Unicode-input command with U+116A2 in a supporting editor.

In Takri, the letter marks the m consonant, like the first sound in “mama,” and normally carries an inherent vowel. A vowel sign changes that vowel; a virama cancels it. Takri also has a few joined-consonant forms, mainly with ya, ra, or ha.

Takri evolved from Sharada through Devāśeṣa, an intermediate script that emerged in the 14th century; Takri took distinct form in the 16th century. A copper-plate land grant from Chamba dated 1635 preserves an ancestor form. Its popular form served business and informal writing, while regional styles also appear in official records, manuscripts, inscriptions, and postage stamps.

Why does Takri letter ma look different?

Regional fonts can change its outline while the letter stays the same.

Takri has no single standard visual form. The chart’s representative forms mainly follow Chambeali Takri; Dogra Akkhar may use a headline and join headlines differently. These regional styles can look far apart while representing the same letter.

From the 17th century until the middle of the 20th century, Takri was an official script in several princely states, as well as a popular script for business and everyday writing. Devanagari gradually displaced it from the late 19th century. Takri descended from Sharada through Devāśeṣa; Gurmukhi and Landa are related Northwestern scripts, but their letters are not interchangeable with Takri.