Va (Indic)

Va
Va
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan	ཝ
Tamil
Thai	ว
Malayalam	വ
Sinhala	ව
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ו
Greek	Ϝ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
Latin	F, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
Cyrillic	Ѕ, У (Ꙋ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation	/ʋ/
IAST transliteration	v V
ISCII code point	D4 (212)

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Va or Wa is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Va is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . It is generally romanized as "Va" in scripts for Indic languages, but as "Wa" in many scripts for other language families.

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 व are:^[1]

व [ʋə] = 60 (६०)
वि [ʋɪ] = 6,000 (६ ०००)
वु [ʋʊ] = 600,000 (६ ०० ०००)
वृ [ʋri] = 60,000,000 (६ ०० ०० ०००)
वॢ [ʋlə] = 6×10⁹ (६×१०^९)
वे [ʋe] = 6×10¹¹ (६×१०^११)
वै [ʋɛː] = 6×10¹³ (६×१०^१३)
वो [ʋoː] = 6×10¹⁵ (६×१०^१५)
वौ [ʋɔː] = 6×10¹⁷ (६×१०^१७)

Historic Va[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Va as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Va had an alterante Fremdzeichen form, . The third form of va, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Va[]

The Brahmi letter , Va, is probably derived from the Aramaic Waw , and is thus related to the modern Latin F, V, U, W, Y, and Greek Upsilon.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Va 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.

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

Tocharian Va[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Vä.

Tocharian Va with vowel marks
Va	Vā	Vi	Vī	Vu	Vū	Vr	Vr̄	Ve	Vai	Vo	Vau	Vä	Fremdzeichen

Kharoṣṭhī Va[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Waw , and is thus related to F, V, U, W, Y, and Upsilon, in addition to the Brahmi Va.^[2]

Devanagari Va[]

Va (व) 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 વ, and the Modi letter

[1]

[2]

[3]