| Romanization | Brahmi | Tamil-Brahmi | Sinhala | Tamil | Devanagari |
|---|
The top rows show each syllable; the highlighted row shows the full word in each script.
Why do I see a virama (
Historically, Brahmi did not use a visible "killer" mark (virama) to silence vowels. Instead, consonants were stacked vertically to form clusters (conjuncts). The horizontal line virama (
Because Noto Sans Brahmi font primarily uses a linear style, most clusters will display this modern mark. However, it does support a few historical vertical ligatures such as:
Why do
In the Brahmi / Sanskrit tradition,
Tamil-Brahmi font compatibility:
Tamil-Brahmi text on this site is rendered using the Adinatha font. Because Adinatha relies on advanced text shaping, it may not render correctly in Safari. For the most consistent Tamil-Brahmi rendering, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Edge.
𑁆) in the Brahmi output?
Historically, Brahmi did not use a visible "killer" mark (virama) to silence vowels. Instead, consonants were stacked vertically to form clusters (conjuncts). The horizontal line virama (
𑁆) you see here is a modern Unicode convention.
Because Noto Sans Brahmi font primarily uses a linear style, most clusters will display this modern mark. However, it does support a few historical vertical ligatures such as:
- sva (
𑀲𑁆𑀯) - kṣa (
𑀓𑁆𑀱) - jña (
𑀚𑁆𑀜)
For all other combinations (e.g., pta 𑀧𑁆𑀢), the font will fall back to the
modern linear style with a visible virama.
Why do
e/ē and o/ō look the same in Brahmi?
In the Brahmi / Sanskrit tradition,
e and o are generally treated as long
vowels and are
not contrasted with separate short forms in writing. So this tool shows the same Brahmi forms for
e/ē and o/ō.
Sinhala and Tamil preserve the contrast, and Devanagari can also represent short forms
(e.g. ऎ, ऒ) in contexts where they’re used.
Tamil-Brahmi font compatibility:
Tamil-Brahmi text on this site is rendered using the Adinatha font. Because Adinatha relies on advanced text shaping, it may not render correctly in Safari. For the most consistent Tamil-Brahmi rendering, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Edge.
How to use this tool
- Use standard Romanization with diacritics (e.g.
buddha,āgama,dīpa). - Any Romanized word—whether from Sinhala, Tamil, Pali, Sanskrit, or another language—is supported.
- Each syllable is rendered separately, then combined into a full word row.
- Consonant-only forms show the script’s virama / hal kirīma sign.
- Ideal for visually comparing shapes across Brahmi, Tamil-Brahmi, Sinhala, Tamil, and Devanagari in one glance.
Supported Special Characters
These characters are fully recognized in the Romanization parser and correctly rendered in all supported scripts.
Sinhala-only vowels:
The characters ඇ (æ / ä) and ඈ (ǣ / ǟ)
exist only in Sinhala.
Other scripts (Brahmi, Tamil-Brahmi, Tamil, Devanagari) map these inputs to their closest "a/ā" fallback.
Other scripts (Brahmi, Tamil-Brahmi, Tamil, Devanagari) map these inputs to their closest "a/ā" fallback.
| Symbol | Meaning | Sinhala | Brahmi | Tamil-Brahmi | Tamil | Devanagari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ṁ ISO 15919 ṃ IAST |
Anusvāra | ං | 𑀁 | 𑀫𑁆 | ஂ | ं |
| ḥ ISO 15919IAST | Visarga | ඃ | 𑀂 | 𑀂 | ஃ | ः |
|
æ ISO 15919 ä German Sources |
Short vowel | ඇ | 𑀅 | 𑀅 | அ | अ |
|
ǣ ISO 15919 ǟ German Sources |
Long vowel | ඈ | 𑀆 | 𑀆 | ஆ | आ |
|
r̥ ISO 15919 ṛ IAST |
Vocalic r | ඍ | 𑀋 | [n/a] | [n/a] | ऋ |
|
r̥̄ ISO 15919 ṝ IAST |
Long vocalic r | ඎ | 𑀌 | [n/a] | [n/a] | ॠ |
| l̥ ISO 15919 | Vocalic l | ඏ | 𑀍 | [n/a] | [n/a] | ऌ |
| l̥̄ ISO 15919 | Long vocalic l | ඐ | 𑀎 | [n/a] | [n/a] | ॡ |
Tamil-specific consonants (distinct in Tamil):
Tamil distinguishes letters like ழ (ḻ), ன (ṉ), and ற (ṟ) with dedicated graphemes.
Devanagari and Brahmi include extended letters used to represent these Dravidian sounds, which is why they appear in those columns.
Sinhala does not have a seperate alveolar series like Tamil, so this tool shows the closest Sinhala approximations
(e.g., ළ, න, ර) rather than forcing exact one-to-one matches.
Tamil distinguishes letters like ழ (ḻ), ன (ṉ), and ற (ṟ) with dedicated graphemes.
Devanagari and Brahmi include extended letters used to represent these Dravidian sounds, which is why they appear in those columns.
Sinhala does not have a seperate alveolar series like Tamil, so this tool shows the closest Sinhala approximations
(e.g., ළ, න, ර) rather than forcing exact one-to-one matches.
| Romanization | Meaning | Brahmi | Tamil-Brahmi | Sinhala | Tamil | Devanagari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ḻ ISO 15919 | Retroflex lateral | 𑀴 | 𑀵 | ළ | ழ | ऴ |
| ṉ ISO 15919 | Alveolar nasal | 𑀦 | 𑀷 | න | ன | ऩ |
| ṟ ISO 15919 | Alveolar trill / tap | 𑀭 | 𑀶 | ර | ற | ऱ |
Sinhala prenasalized (සඤ්ඤක / saññaka) consonants
These are Sinhala-only prenasalized stops that the tool recognizes when you type
n̆ga, n̆ja, n̆ḍa, n̆da, m̆ba.
Sinhala Saññaka (prenasalized) consonants:
The forms ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ are unique to Sinhala and represent prenasalized stops.
Other scripts (Brahmi, Tamil-Brahmi, Tamil, Devanagari) typically don't have single dedicated letters for these prenasalized stops, so the tool displays
The forms ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ are unique to Sinhala and represent prenasalized stops.
Other scripts (Brahmi, Tamil-Brahmi, Tamil, Devanagari) typically don't have single dedicated letters for these prenasalized stops, so the tool displays
[n/a] in those columns.
| Romanization | Sinhala | Examples |
|---|---|---|
n̆ga |
ඟ |
gan̆ga → ගඟsan̆garā → සඟරා
|
n̆ja |
ඦ |
an̆jun → අඦුන්in̆juḥ → ඉඦුඃ
|
n̆ḍa |
ඬ |
pan̆ḍi → පඬිman̆ḍala → මඬල
|
n̆da |
ඳ |
son̆dura → සොඳුරsan̆da → සඳ
|
m̆ba |
ඹ |
kum̆bura → කුඹුරam̆bara → අඹර
|
Sinhala consonant forms used by this tool
Default Sinhala behaviour (always enabled):
These features are always applied in the Sinhala column — they do not depend on any toggle.
Rakārāṁśaya / රකාරාංශය (ra/ර after a
consonant):
Sequences like
while other scripts show their regular consonant +
Sequences like
kra, gra, śra, pra are rendered as
ක්ර, ග්ර, ශ්ර, ප්ර in Sinhala,while other scripts show their regular consonant +
r clusters.
Yaṁśaya / යංශය(ya/ය after a
consonant):
Inputs such as
Other scripts render the corresponding
Inputs such as
kya, gya, dya become
ක්ය, ග්ය, ද්ය in Sinhala. Other scripts render the corresponding
ky, gy, dy combinations in their own orthography.
Composite letter / සංයෝගාක්ෂරය (ඥ /
jñ):
When you type
Other scripts show their own
When you type
jña, the Sinhala output uses the classical
composite letter ඥ (from ජ් + ඤ).Other scripts show their own
jñ clusters
(for example Devanagari ज्ञ, Tamil ஜ்ஞ, Brahmi
𑀚𑁆𑀜) according to their normal conjunct behaviour.
Sinhala-specific rendering behaviour
Extra classical Sinhala forms (toggle-controlled):
The toggle
Enable Classical Sinhala Forms (Rēphaya, Bændi Akuru)
controls the following additional shaping behaviour.
Rēphaya / රේඵය (pre-consonant
Typing
These preposed forms appear only when the classical Sinhala toggle is turned on.
r/ර්):Typing
rka, rga, rta can produce preposed r forms
like
ර්ක, ර්ග, ර්ත in Sinhala fonts that support rēphaya.These preposed forms appear only when the classical Sinhala toggle is turned on.
"Bændi akuru / බැඳි අකුරු" / stacked consonant forms:
When Enable Classical Sinhala Forms (Rēphaya, Bændi Akuru) is on, the tool uses classical stacked shapes for some common
Pali–Sanskrit clusters by inserting a zero-width joiner.
For example:
This affects only the Sinhala column; Brahmi, Tamil, and Devanagari continue to show their regular cluster sequences.
When Enable Classical Sinhala Forms (Rēphaya, Bændi Akuru) is on, the tool uses classical stacked shapes for some common
Pali–Sanskrit clusters by inserting a zero-width joiner.
For example:
kṣa → ක්ෂ,
gdha → ග්ධ,
ndha → න්ධ,
tva → ත්ව,
nda → න්ද,
ttha → ත්ථ,
dva → ද්ව,
ddha → ද්ධ,ṭṭha → ට්ඨ,
ñca → ඤ්ච.This affects only the Sinhala column; Brahmi, Tamil, and Devanagari continue to show their regular cluster sequences.
How each script handles clusters
Devanagari conjunct behaviour:
Devanagari automatically forms conjunct letters (such as
This tool does not apply any extra processing for Devanagari — once the basic letters are mapped, the browser renders the correct conjunct forms on its own.
Devanagari automatically forms conjunct letters (such as
tra, kṣa,
jña, dya) using its built-in Unicode shaping rules.This tool does not apply any extra processing for Devanagari — once the basic letters are mapped, the browser renders the correct conjunct forms on its own.
Tamil clusters (no special "consonant forms"):
Tamil does not use features like rakārāṁśaya, yaṁśaya, or rēphaya.
Clusters such as
The script has no pre-posed
Tamil does not use features like rakārāṁśaya, yaṁśaya, or rēphaya.
Clusters such as
kra, gya, rta are shown in their
normal Tamil orthography as simple consonant + r/y sequences.The script has no pre-posed
r, no stacked forms, and no special conjunct shaping
for these combinations.