Hindu philosophical concept
"Aksara" redirects here. For the Javanese script known as Aksara or Hanacaraka, see Javanese script.
Akshara (Sanskrit: अक्षर, romanized: akṣara, lit. 'imperishable, indestructible, fixed, immutable') is a term used in the traditional grammar of the Sanskrit language and in the Vedanta school of Indian philosophy.
The term is derived from अ, a- "not" and क्षर्, kṣar- "melt away, perish". The uniting aspect of its use is the mystical view of language, or shabda, in Hindu tradition, and especially the notion of the syllable as a kind of immutable (or "atomic") substance of both language and truth, most prominently, the mystical syllable Aum, which is given the name of ekākṣara (i.e. eka-akṣara), which can be translated as both "the sole imperishable thing" and as "a single syllable".