Ṣa (Indic)
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| Ṣa | |
|---|---|
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| Example glyphs | |
| Bengali |  |
| Tibetan | ཥ |
| Tamil | ஷ |
| Thai | ษ |
| Malayalam | ഷ |
| Sinhala | ෂ |
| Ashoka Brahmi |  |
| Devanagari | 
|
| Cognates | |
| Hebrew | ס |
| Greek | Ξ |
| Cyrillic | Ѯ |
| Properties | |
| Phonemic representation | /ʂ/ |
| IAST transliteration | ṣ Ṣ |
| ISCII code point | D6 (214) |
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| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chandrabindu · Anusvara · Visarga · Virama · Nuqta · Avagraha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ṣa is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ssa is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter 
after having gone through the Gupta letter 
.
Āryabhaṭa numeration[]
Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of ष are:[1]
- ष [ʂə] = 80 (८०)
- षि [ʂɪ] = 8,000 (८ ०००)
- षु [ʂʊ] = 800,000 (८ ०० ०००)
- षृ [ʂri] = 80,000,000 (८ ०० ०० ०००)
- षॢ [ʂlə] = 8×109 (८×१०९)
- षे [ʂe] = 8×1011 (८×१०११)
- षै [ʂɛː] = 8×1013 (८×१०१३)
- षो [ʂoː] = 8×1015 (८×१०१५)
- षौ [ʂɔː] = 8×1017 (८×१०१७)
Historic Ṣa[]
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ssa as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ssa 
had an alterante Fremdzeichen form, 
. The third form of ssa, in Kharoshthi (
) was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.
Brahmi Ṣa[]
The Brahmi letter , Ssa, is probably derived from the Aramaic Samekh 
, and is thus related to the modern Greek Xi.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ssa 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, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.
| Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE) |
Girnar (~150 BCE) |
Kushana (~150-250 CE) |
Gujarat (~250 CE) |
Gupta (~350 CE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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No sample |  |
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Tocharian Ṣa[]
The Tocharian letter 
is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form 
used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Ssä.
| Ssa | Ssā | Ssi | Ssī | Ssu | Ssū | Ssr | Ssr̄ | Sse | Ssai | Sso | Ssau | Ssä | Fremdzeichen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kharoṣṭhī Ṣa[]
The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Heth 
, and is thus related to H and Eta.[2]
Devanagari Ṣa[]
| Devanāgarī |
|---|
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Ṣa (ष) is a consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ષ, and the Modi letter