is a vowel-like letter of Indic abugidas, often referred to as a "vocalic R̄". In modern Indic scripts, Ṝ is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter ng. As an ostensible Indic vowel, Ṝ comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Ṝ
Example glyphs
Bengali-AssameseṜ
Tibetan
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka BrahmiṜ
DevanagariṜ
Cognates
Hebrewר
GreekΡ
LatinR
CyrillicР
Properties
Phonemic representation/ɻ̩ː/
IAST transliterationṝ Ṝ
ISCII code point00 (0)

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The ॄ sign was used to modify a consonant's value ×106, but the vowel letter ॠ did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]

Historic Ṝ

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ṝ was not found as an independent vowel in Brahmi, only as a vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Ṝ Ṝ has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including Ṝ are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Ṝ

The Brahmi letter Ṝ was a simple modification of the Brahmi Ṛ, and as such is probably ultimately derived from the Aramaic Resh , and is thus related to the modern Latin R and Greek Rho.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Ṝ vowel sign can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, but given the lack of Ṝ vowel signs in early Brahmi, the reference image is normally back-formed to a geometric form of later styles, and the independent letter for Ṝ is derived from the short Ṛ .

Tocharian Rii

The Tocharian letter Ṝ is derived from the short Brahmi Ṛ . The Tocharian Ṝ was very infrequently used, and only appears in the corpus in combination with a few base consonants.

Tocharian consonants with Ṝ vowel marks
Kr̄Khr̄Gr̄Ghr̄Cr̄Chr̄Jr̄Jhr̄Nyr̄Ṭr̄Ṭhr̄Ḍr̄Ḍhr̄Ṇr̄
Tr̄Thr̄Dr̄Dhr̄Nr̄Pr̄Phr̄Br̄Bhr̄Mr̄Yr̄r̄rLr̄Vr̄
Śr̄Ṣr̄Sr̄Hr̄


Kharoṣṭhī Ṝ

The Kharoṣṭhī letter Ṝ is indicated with the vowel mark Ṛ plus the vowel length mark . As an independent vowel, Ṝ is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A A.

Devanagari Ṝ

Ṝ vowel
Ṝ vowel sign
Devanagari independent Ṝ and Ṝ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ṝ. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘇.

Devanagari Using Languages

The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ॠ is pronounced as [ṝ]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Ṝ

Ṝ vowel
Ṝ vowel sign
Bengali independent Ṝ and Ṝ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter Ṝ, and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ॠ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ৠ is pronounced as [ṝ]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Ṝ

Ṝ vowel
Ṝ vowel sign
Gujarati independent Ṝ and Ṝ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ṝ rr, and ultimately the Brahmi letter rr.

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ૠ is pronounced as [ṝ]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Telugu Ṝ

Telugu independent vowel Ṝ
Telugu vowel sign Ṝ
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Ṝ.

() is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ṝ Ṝ. It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Ṝ is a non-attaching vowel sign, and does not alter the underlying consonant or contextually shape itself in any way.

Telugu Ṝ vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kṝ, Khṝ, Gṝ, Ghṝ and Ngṝ.

Malayalam Ṝ

Malayalam independent vowel Ṝ
Malayalam vowel sign Ṝ
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ṝ.

() is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ṝ, via the Grantha letter Ṝ rr. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. Some vowel signs, such as Ṝ, can also form a ligature with some consonants, although this is much more common in old-style paḻaya lipi texts than in the modern reformed paḻaya lipi orthography.

Malayalam Ṝ vowel sign on ക, ഖ, ഗ, ഘ, & ങ: Kṝ, Khṝ, Gṝ, Ghṝ and Ngṝ in paḻaya lipi.

Odia Ṝ

Odia independent vowel Ṝ
Odia vowel sign Ṝ
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Ṝ.

() is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ṝ, via the Siddhaṃ letter Ṝ rr. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Comparison of Ṝ

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Ṝ, are related as well.

Comparison of Ṝ in different scripts
Aramaic
Ṝ
Kharoṣṭhī
-
Ashoka Brahmi
Ṝ
Kushana Brahmi[lower-alpha 1]
𑀌
Tocharian[lower-alpha 2]
-
Gupta Brahmi
𑀌
Pallava
-
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰇
Siddhaṃ
Ṝ
Grantha
𑍠
Cham
-
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[lower-alpha 3]
-
Tibetan
Newa
𑐇
Ahom
-
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
-
Ranjana
Ṝ
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
-
Kannada
Kayah Li
-
Limbu
-
Soyombo[lower-alpha 4]
-
Khmer
-
Tamil
-
Chakma
-
Tai Tham
-
Meitei Mayek
-
Gaudi
-
Thai
-
Lao
-
Tai Le
-
Marchen
-
Tirhuta
𑒈
New Tai Lue
-
Tai Viet
-
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
-
Odia
Sharada
𑆊
Rejang
-
Batak
-
Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
-
Bengali-Assamese
Ṝ
Takri
-
Javanese
-
Balinese
-
Makasar
-
Hangul[lower-alpha 5]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
𑠲
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
-
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘇
Gujarati
Khojki
-
Khudabadi
-
Mahajani
-
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
Ṝ
Nandinagari
𑦧
Kaithi
-
Gurmukhi
-
Multani
-
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[lower-alpha 6]
-
Soyombo[lower-alpha 7]
-
Sylheti Nagari
-
Gunjala Gondi
-
Masaram Gondi[lower-alpha 8]
-
Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms.
  2. Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession.
  3. Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida.
  6. Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas.
  7. May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Ṝ

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ṝ in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ṝ from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information
Preview
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER VOCALIC RR BENGALI LETTER VOCALIC RR TELUGU LETTER VOCALIC RR ORIYA LETTER VOCALIC RR KANNADA LETTER VOCALIC RR MALAYALAM LETTER VOCALIC RR GUJARATI LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode2400U+09602528U+09E03168U+0C602912U+0B603296U+0CE03424U+0D602784U+0AE0
UTF-8224 165 160E0 A5 A0224 167 160E0 A7 A0224 177 160E0 B1 A0224 173 160E0 AD A0224 179 160E0 B3 A0224 181 160E0 B5 A0224 171 160E0 AB A0
Numeric character referenceॠॠৠৠౠౠୠୠೠೠൠൠૠૠ
ISCII


Character information
Preview
Ashoka
Kushana
Gupta
𑍠
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER VOCALIC RR SIDDHAM LETTER VOCALIC RR GRANTHA LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode69644U+1100C71047U+1158770496U+11360
UTF-8240 145 128 140F0 91 80 8C240 145 150 135F0 91 96 87240 145 141 160F0 91 8D A0
UTF-1655300 56332D804 DC0C55301 56711D805 DD8755300 57184D804 DF60
Numeric character reference𑀌𑀌𑖇𑖇𑍠𑍠


Character information
Preview𑐇𑰇𑆊
Unicode name NEWA LETTER VOCALIC RR BHAIKSUKI LETTER VOCALIC RR SHARADA LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode70663U+1140772711U+11C0770026U+1118A
UTF-8240 145 144 135F0 91 90 87240 145 176 135F0 91 B0 87240 145 134 138F0 91 86 8A
UTF-1655301 56327D805 DC0755303 56327D807 DC0755300 56714D804 DD8A
Numeric character reference𑐇𑐇𑰇𑰇𑆊𑆊


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode4179U+1053
UTF-8225 129 147E1 81 93
Numeric character referenceၓၓ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL RYY
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode6060U+17AC
UTF-8225 158 172E1 9E AC
Numeric character referenceឬឬ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER IRUUYANNA SAURASHTRA LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode3470U+0D8E43145U+A889
UTF-8224 182 142E0 B6 8E234 162 137EA A2 89
Numeric character referenceඎඎꢉꢉ


Character information
Preview𑘇𑦧
Unicode name MODI LETTER VOCALIC RR NANDINAGARI LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode71175U+1160772103U+119A7
UTF-8240 145 152 135F0 91 98 87240 145 166 167F0 91 A6 A7
UTF-1655301 56839D805 DE0755302 56743D806 DDA7
Numeric character reference𑘇𑘇𑦧𑦧


Character information
Preview𑒈
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER VOCALIC RR
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode70792U+11488
UTF-8240 145 146 136F0 91 92 88
UTF-1655301 56456D805 DC88
Numeric character reference𑒈𑒈



Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER RA REPA TEDUNG
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode6924U+1B0C
UTF-8225 172 140E1 AC 8C
Numeric character referenceᬌᬌ



References

  1. Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838
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