There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ta as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta. The Tocharian Ta had an alterante Fremdzeichen form,. The third form of ta, in Kharoshthi was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.
Brahmi Ta
The Brahmi letter, Ta, is probably derived from the Aramaic Taw, and is thus related to the modern LatinT and Greek Tau. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ta 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.
The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi, and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Tä.
Ta
Tā
Ti
Tī
Tu
Tū
Tr
Tr̄
Te
Tai
To
Tau
Tä
Fremdzeichen
Kharoṣṭhī Ta
The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Taw, and is thus related to T and Tau, in addition to the Brahmi Ta.
Devanagari Ta
Ta 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 ત, and the Modi letter ?.
Devanagari-using Languages
In all languages, त is pronounced as or when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:
Ta
Tā
Ti
Tī
Tu
Tū
Tr
Tr̄
Tl
Tl̄
Te
Tai
To
Tau
T
त
ता
ति
ती
तु
तू
तृ
तॄ
तॢ
तॣ
ते
तै
तो
तौ
त्
Conjuncts with त
Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.
Ligature conjuncts of त
True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.
Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.
The Bengali script ত is derived from the Siddhaṃ, and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, त. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ত will sometimes be transliterated as "to" instead of "ta". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /t̪o/. Like all Indic consonants, ত can be modified by marks to indicate another vowel than its inherent "a".
ta
tā
ti
tī
tu
tū
tr
tr̄
te
tai
to
tau
t
ত
তা
তি
তী
তু
তূ
তৃ
তৄ
তে
তৈ
তো
তৌ
ত্
ত in Bengali-using languages
ত is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.
Conjuncts with ত
Bengali ত exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with a tendency towards stacked ligatures.
Khanda Ta
Some ostensible conjuncts with an initial ত are realized visually with a character called Khanda Ta "Broken Ta". This "broken" form of ত is used to represent the bare consonant without an inherent "A" vowel, and does not normally take vowel marks. It resembles the normal letter ত, but reversed, without a head line, and a reduced tail.
ৎ + ক gives us the conjunct tka:
Other ত Conjuncts
Other conjuncts take the form of a ligature when ত is the initial head consonant, or usually as a stacked conjunct when ত is non-head. As is normal, as a later element in a stacked conjunct, ত loses its head line when conjoining, and has a reduced tail when followed by Ra-phala.
ক্ + ত gives us the ligature kta:
ক্ + ত্ + র gives us the ligature ktra, with the ra phala suffix:
ন্ + ত gives us the ligature nta:
ন্ + ত্ + র gives us the ligature ntra, with the ra phala suffix:
ন্ + ত্ + র্ + য gives us the ligature ntrya, with the ra phala and ya phala suffixes
ন্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature ntva, with the va phala suffix:
ন্ + ত্ + য gives us the ligature ntya, with the ya phala suffix:
প্ + ত gives us the ligature pta:
র্ + ত gives us the ligature rta, with the repha prefix:
র্ + ত্ + র gives us the ligature rtra, with the repha prefix and ra phala suffix:
র্ + ত্ + য gives us the ligature rtya, with the repha prefix and ya phala suffix:
স্ + ত gives us the ligature sta:
স্ + ত্ + র gives us the ligature stra, with the ra phala suffix:
স্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature stva, with the va phala suffix:
স্ + ত্ + য gives us the ligature stya, with the ya phala suffix:
ত্ + ম gives us the ligature tma:
ত্ + ম্ + য gives us the ligature tmya, with the ya phala suffix:
ত্ + ন gives us the ligature tna:
ত্ + র gives us the ligature tra, with the ra phala suffix:
ত্ + র্ + য gives us the ligature trya, with the ra phala and ya phala suffixes
ত্ + স gives us the ligature tsa:
ত্ + ত gives us the ligature tta:
ত্ + থ gives us the ligature ttʰa:
ত্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature ttva, with the va phala suffix:
ত্ + ত্ + য gives us the ligature ttya, with the ya phala suffix:
ত্ + ব gives us the ligature tva, with the va phala suffix:
ত্ + য gives us the ligature tya, with the ya phala suffix:
