What ௳ means
In a date, it marks the day. In Tamil date notation, ௳ follows the day number. A 2022 study of dated Tamil and Tamilian Grantha manuscripts (Grantha is another script used in some Tamil manuscript traditions) records this pattern in material reaching back to the 17th century.
At a text's opening, it may be Pillaiyar Suzhi, an auspicious mark invoking Ganesha. A palm-leaf account from 1772 places it before an invocation, and the same use is documented in 1928. In this devotional role it is comparable to Om as an auspicious opening in other Indic traditions, but it is a different sign. Beside grain quantities, it can also denote naali or padi, a traditional grain measure.
Traditional; at a text opening, it can carry Hindu devotional meaning.
Treat the opening mark as devotional, not as a neutral good-luck flourish; it invokes Ganesha.
Part of the collection
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsA date's day marker.
Don't confuse it with
2
Questions people ask
1Why does ௳ look different in another font?
It can. Unicode's reference glyphs are not prescriptive, so Tamil fonts may draw this text sign differently; a font change does not create a different character.
More like this
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How to type or find ௳
- Also called
- Pillaiyar Suzhi · Pillaiyar Suli
- Search it as
- Tamil date sign · Pillaiyar · Suzhi · naal sign · naali measure · padi measure · Tamil grain measure
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.