Gha (Indic)

Gha
Gha
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan	གྷ
Thai	ฆ
Malayalam	ഘ
Sinhala	ඝ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ח
Greek	Η, Ͱ
Latin	H
Cyrillic	И
Properties
Phonemic representation	/gʱ/
IAST transliteration	gha Gha
ISCII code point	B6 (182)

This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

Gha is the fourth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, gha is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic ("H/X") 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 घ are:^[1]

घ [gʱə] = 4 (४)
घि [gʱɪ] = 400 (४००)
घु [gʱʊ] = 40,000 (४० ०००)
घृ [gʱri] = 4,000,000 (४० ०० ०००)
घॢ [gʱlə] = 4×10⁸ (४०^८)
घे [gʱe] = 4×10¹⁰ (४०^१०)
घै [gʱɛː] = 4×10¹² (४०^१२)
घो [gʱoː] = 4×10¹⁴ (४०^१४)
घौ [gʱɔː] = 4×10¹⁶ (४०^१६)

Historic Gha[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Gha as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Gha did not have an alterante Fremdzeichen form. The third form of gha, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Gha[]

The Brahmi letter , Gha, is probably derived from the Aramaic Heth , and is thus related to the modern Latin H and Greek Eta. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Gha can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[2] 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.

Brahmi Gha historic forms
Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Gha[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian Gha with vowel marks
Gha	Ghā	Ghi	Ghī	Ghu	Ghū	Ghr	Ghr̄	Ghe	Ghai	Gho	Ghau	Ghä

Kharoṣṭhī Gha[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Heth , and is thus related to H and Eta, in addition to the Brahmi Gha.

Devanagari script[]

Gha (घ) is the fourth 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 ઘ and the Modi letter

[1]

[2]