A (Indic)


A is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, A is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the "A" vowel inherently, and thus there is no modifier sign for "A" in Indic scripts.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The letter अ was not used in the Aryabhata number system, and consonants with the inherent "a" vowel retained their base value.

Historic A

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. A as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta. Like all Brahmic scripts, the Tocharian A is the inherent vowel for all consonant characters, apart from the alternate Fremdzeichen forms, which have the inherent vowel "Ä". In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A, with all other independent vowels built from vowel marks added to A.

Brahmi A

The Brahmi letter, A, is probably derived from the Aramaic Alef, and is thus related to the modern Latin A and Greek Alpha. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi A 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, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.
Ashoka
Girnar
Kushana
Gujarat
Gupta

Tocharian A

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi.
KaKhaGaGhaCaChaJaJhaNyaṬaṬhaḌaḌhaṆa
TaThaDaDhaNaPaPhaBaBhaMaYaRaLaVa
ŚaṢaSaHa----------
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Kharoṣṭhī A

The Kharoṣṭhī letter A is the only independent vowel in Kharosthi. It is derived from the Aramaic Alef, and is thus related to A and Alpha, as well as the Brahmi A.

Devanagari A

Bengali A

Javanese A