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
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:
व = 60
वि = 6,000
वु = 600,000
वृ = 60,000,000
वॢ = 6
वे = 6
वै = 6
वो = 6
वौ = 6
Historic Va
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-calledslanting 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 LatinF, V, U, W, Y, and Greek Upsilon. 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. 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 Vä.
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.
Devanagari Va
Va 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 ?.
Devanagari-using Languages
In all languages, व 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:
Va
Vā
Vi
Vī
Vu
Vū
Vr
Vr̄
Vl
Vl̄
Ve
Vai
Vo
Vau
V
व
वा
वि
वी
वु
वू
वृ
वॄ
वॢ
वॣ
वे
वै
वो
वौ
व्
Conjuncts with व
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 व
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.
र্ + व gives us the ligature rva:
व্ + न gives us the ligature vna:
व্ + र gives us the ligature vra:
द্ + ध্ + व gives us the ligature ddʱva:
द্ + व gives us the ligature dva:
द্ + व্ + य gives us the ligature dvya:
र্ + द্ + व gives us the ligature rdva:
Stacked conjuncts of व
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 ব is derived from the Siddhaṃ, and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, व. Unlike many of its cognates in other Indic scripts, ব is primarily identified as the /b/ consonant, especially as an independent consonant. It tends to have no inherent pronunciation itself when in a non-head position of a conjuct conjunct, often serving as an indication of gemination of the preceding consonant sound, although there are a few words where it retains its /b/ pronunciation. Like all Indic consonants, ব can be modified by marks to indicate another vowel than its inherent "a".
ba
bā
bi
bī
bu
bū
br
br̄
be
bai
bo
bau
b
ব
বা
বি
বী
বু
বূ
বৃ
বৄ
বে
বৈ
বো
বৌ
ব্
ব in Bengali-using languages
ব is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.
Conjuncts with non-head ব
Bengali ব exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with a tendency towards stacked ligatures. When used as the head consonant in a conjunct, ব is normally pronounced as /b/.
Bengali Va-phala
Like Ra and Ya, the Bengali Va is almost always realized in a reduced form called "Va phala" when found as the final consonant of a conjunct. This reduced form is appended at the bottom of a vertical stem, or otherwise attached at the bottom of a preceding consonant or conjunct.
ভ্ + ব gives us the ligature bʰva:
চ্ + ছ্ + ব gives us the ligature ccʰva:
চ্ + ব gives us the ligature cva:
ড্ + ব gives us the ligature ḍva:
দ্ + দ্ + ব gives us the ligature ddva:
দ্ + ব gives us the ligature dva:
গ্ + ব gives us the ligature gva:
জ্ + জ্ + ব gives us the ligature jjva:
জ্ + ব gives us the ligature jva:
খ্ + ব gives us the ligature kʰva:
ক্ + শ্ + ব gives us the ligature kʃva:
ক্ + ব gives us the ligature kva:
ল্ + ব gives us the ligature lva:
ম্ + ব gives us the ligature mva:
ন্ + দ্ + ব gives us the ligature ndva:
ন্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature ntva:
ন্ + ব gives us the ligature nva:
র্ + দ্ + ব gives us the ligature rdva, with repha in addition to va phala:
র্ + শ্ + ব gives us the ligature rʃva, with repha in addition to va phala:
শ্ + ব gives us the ligature ʃva:
ষ্ + ব gives us the ligature ṣva:
স্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature stva:
স্ + ব gives us the ligature sva:
থ্ + ব gives us the ligature tʰva:
ট্ + ব gives us the ligature ṭva:
ত্ + ত্ + ব gives us the ligature ttva:
ত্ + ব gives us the ligature tva:
Other ব conjuncts
A few letters conjoin with ব by keeping it in its full form instead of the reduced Va-phala.
ধ্ + ব gives us the ligature dʱva with full-form va:
র্ + ধ্ + ব gives us the ligature rdʱva, with repha:
ম্ + ব্ + র gives us the ligature mvra, with the ra phala suffix. Note that this is a different base conjunct than [|mva], above:
