Ṛ (Indic)
Ṛ is a letter symbol of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic (Brahmic) scripts, Ṛ is derived from the early Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter. It is used only in Sanskrit language and in direct loanwords from Sanskrit which constitute the so called tatsama vocabulary of the modern Indic languages written by Brahmic scripts. The symbol represents what in Sanskrit was a syllabic r-sound, same as in words like krk in some Slavic languages. This vocalic r has the function of a vowel in Sanskrit grammar. In modern Indic languages, this letter is pronounced by adding a vowel sound after the r, yielding /ri/ in Northern South Asia, and /ru/. English adopts the Northern Indic pronunciation into its spellings of Sanskrit loanwords.
As with all vowels in Brahmic scripts, there are two signs to represent this single phoneme: 1) a stand-alone, independent letter a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant letter.. Both of the signs are transliterated as Ṛ in the ISO 15919 romanization standard for Indic languages, and as Ṛ in IAST. The latter is commonly used in texts where no confusion with an identically transliterated Hindi consonant can arise.
Āryabhaṭa numeration
Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The matra sign ृ was used to modify a consonant's value, but the independent vowel letter ऋ did not have an inherent value by itself.Historic Ṛ
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ṛ was not found in early Brahmi, and only appears in some of the less geometric styles of later Brahmi writing, such as the Gupta. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Ṛ 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 Ṛ are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.Brahmi Ṛ
The Brahmi letter Ṛ is probably derived from the Aramaic Resh, and is thus related to the modern Latin R and Greek Rho. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ṛ can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. 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 Ṛ is not found in those texts, so it is usually cited with a back-formed geometric style character similar to "X".| Ashoka | Girnar | Kushana | Gujarat | Gupta |
| No examples |
Tocharian Ṛ
The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi. Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.| Kr | Khr | Gr | Ghr | Cr | Chr | Jr | Jhr | Nyr | Ṭr | Ṭhr | Ḍr | Ḍhr | Ṇr |
| Tr | Thr | Dr | Dhr | Nr | Pr | Phr | Br | Bhr | Mr | Yr | Rr | Lr | Vr |
| Śr | Ṣr | Sr | Hr | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Kharoṣṭhī Ṛ
The Kharoṣṭhī letter Ṛ is indicated with the vowel mark. As an independent vowel, Ṛ is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A.Devanagari Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It arose from the Brahmi letter, after having gone through the Gupta letter. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઋ, and the Modi letter ?.Devanagari Using Languages
The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages.. 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 Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter, and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ऋ.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, ঋ is pronounced as. 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 Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ṛ, and the Brahmi letter.Gujarati-using Languages
The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઋ is pronounced as. 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 Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It arose from the Brahmi letter. It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಋ. 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. Ṛ is a non-attaching vowel sign, and does not alter the underlying consonant or contextually shape itself in any way.Malayalam Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Grantha letter r. 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 Ṛ, 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.Odia Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Siddhaṃ letter r. 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.Tirhuta Ṛ
Ṛ is a vowel of the Tirhuta abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Siddhaṃ letter r. Like in other Indic scripts, Tirhuta 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 Tirhuta 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. Several consonants are altered in form when adding the Ṛ vowel mark, unlike most Tirhuta vowels.Conjuncts of ?
As is common in Indic scripts, Tirhuta joins letters together to form ligatures and conjuncts. Unlike most Indic scripts, Tirhuta not only has ligatures and conjuncts of consonant clusters, but also forms ligatures of consonants + vowel marks. Ṛ is one of the vowels that form ligatures with some consonants.- ?𑓂 + ? gives the ligature bʰṛ:
- ?𑓂 + ? gives the ligature hṛ:
- ?𑓂 + ? gives the ligature kṛ:
- ?𑓂 + ? gives the ligature tṛ: