Anusvara

Anusvara

Anusvara (Sanskrit: अनुस्वार, IAST: anusvāra), also known as Bindu (Hindi: बिंदु), is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated ⟨ṃ⟩ or ⟨ṁ⟩ in standards like ISO 15919 and IAST. Depending on its location in the word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the context of ancient Sanskrit, anusvara is the name of the particular nasal sound itself, regardless of written representation.