Tamil letter au

ஔ is the independent form of Tamil’s au vowel. Tamil uses this full letter at the beginning of a syllable; when a consonant comes first, its au vowel is written with the dependent sign ௌ. In Tamil99 and Typewriter layouts, select the independent-vowel key for this letter.

Where did ஔ come from?

Its modern form belongs to a layered Tamil script history. Tamil-Brahmi, an early script used for Tamil inscriptions, has no au vowel in the inscriptions studied (as of 2026). A handbook on Tamil-Brahmi reconstructs the independent and consonant-attached forms from Mauryan Brahmi, an earlier Brahmi writing tradition. That reconstruction makes ஔ part of a developing script history, not a sign shown to survive unchanged from the earliest inscriptions.

Classical Tamil grammar lists the au vowel among those allowed at the start of a word and generally excludes it from word-final position. In the medieval period, சௌபலர் begins with சௌ (ச plus the dependent sign ௌ), despite an older restriction on that consonant pairing. More broadly, Tamil-Brahmi developed toward Vatteluttu, a later Tamil script; a separate script used in the Pallava period was later inherited and standardized under Chola rule.