U094D

U+094D, known as the Devanagari Sign Virama, is a Unicode code point in the Devanagari block. It functions as a combining diacritic that suppresses the inherent vowel of a consonant, enabling the formation of consonant conjuncts in languages that use Devanagari script, such as Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit, and Konkani.

In Devanagari orthography, the virama is placed after a consonant to indicate that it should carry no inherent vowel. When a consonant with a virama is followed by another consonant, the two (or more) consonants can form a conjunct glyph. The virama itself is not a standalone letter; it is a nonspacing mark that interacts with adjacent characters to shape rendering and pronunciation.

Encoding and rendering: U+094D has the Unicode general category Mn (nonspacing mark). In most fonts, it appears as a small diacritic attached to the preceding consonant, with the exact appearance varying by typeface. The virama’s primary role is functional rather than phonemic, guiding how sequences of consonants are joined in printing and digital text.

Historical and usage notes: The virama derives from the Brahmi script family and remains a standard component of Devanagari typography. It is essential for accurately representing consonant clusters and the phonology of many Indic languages in digital text. While its visual form can differ across fonts, its function—to suppress the vowel and enable conjuncts—remains consistent.