In Indic scripts, the daṇḍa (Sanskrit: दण्ड daṇḍa "stick")[a] is a punctuation mark.[2] The grapheme consists of a single vertical stroke.

Daṇḍa
U+0964 DEVANAGARI DANDA

The daṇḍa marks the end of a sentence or line, comparable to a full stop (period) as commonly used in the Latin alphabet, and is used together with Western punctuation in Hindi and Nepali.

The daṇḍa and double daṇḍa are the only punctuation used in Sanskrit texts.[2] No distinct punctuation is used to mark questions or exclamations, which must be inferred from other aspects of the sentence.[2]

In metrical texts, a double daṇḍa is used to delimit verses, and a single daṇḍa to delimit a pada, line, or semi-verse. In prose, the double daṇḍa is used to mark the end of a paragraph, a story, or section.[2]

Computer encoding

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Unicode encodes the daṇḍas as U+0964 DEVANAGARI DANDA and U+0965 DEVANAGARI DOUBLE DANDA. The Unicode standard recommends using this character also in other Indic scripts, like Bengali, Telugu, Oriya, and others.[3] Encoding it separately for every Indic script was proposed,[4] but has not yet been accepted. (The graphemes for x0964 and x0965 can be implemented in a computer font with a glyph design that matches the conventional style for those languages.)

Danda and similar characters are encoded separately for some scripts in which its appearance or use is significantly different from the Devanagari one. These include forms with adornments, such as the Rgya Gram Shad.[1]

ISCII encoded daṇḍa at 0xEA.

Below is a list of Unicode dandas:

danda characters in Unicode
dandadouble danda
U+0964 DEVANAGARI DANDAU+0965 DEVANAGARI DOUBLE DANDA
U+0E2F THAI CHARACTER PAIYANNOIU+0E5A THAI CHARACTER ANGKHANKHU
U+104A MYANMAR SIGN LITTLE SECTIONU+104B MYANMAR SIGN SECTION
U+17D4 KHMER SIGN KHANU+17D5 KHMER SIGN BARIYOOSAN
U+1AA8 TAI THAM SIGN KAANU+1AA9 TAI THAM SIGN KAANKUU
U+1AAA TAI THAM SIGN SATKAANU+1AAB TAI THAM SIGN SATKAANKUU
U+A8CE SAURASHTRA DANDAU+A8CF SAURASHTRA DOUBLE DANDA
U+AA5D CHAM PUNCTUATION DANDAU+AA5E CHAM PUNCTUATION DOUBLE DANDA
U+AA5F CHAM PUNCTUATION TRIPLE DANDA
U+10A56 𐩖 KHAROSHTHI PUNCTUATION DANDAU+10A57 𐩗 KHAROSHTHI PUNCTUATION DOUBLE DANDA
U+11047 𑁇 BRAHMI DANDAU+11048 𑁈 BRAHMI DOUBLE DANDA
U+110BE 𑂾 KAITHI SECTION MARKU+110BF 𑂿 KAITHI DOUBLE SECTION MARK
U+110C0 𑃀 KAITHI DANDAU+110C1 𑃁 KAITHI DOUBLE DANDA
U+11141 𑅁 CHAKMA DANDAU+11142 𑅂 CHAKMA DOUBLE DANDA
U+111C5 𑇅 SHARADA DANDAU+111C6 𑇆 SHARADA DOUBLE DANDA
U+11238 𑈸 KHOJKI DANDAU+11239 𑈹 KHOJKI DOUBLE DANDA
U+1123B 𑈻 KHOJKI SECTION MARKU+1123C 𑈼 KHOJKI DOUBLE SECTION MARK
U+1144B 𑑋 NEWA DANDAU+1144C 𑑌 NEWA DOUBLE DANDA
U+115C2 𑗂 SIDDHAM DANDAU+115C3 𑗃 SIDDHAM DOUBLE DANDA
U+11641 𑙁 MODI DANDAU+11642 𑙂 MODI DOUBLE DANDA
U+1173C 𑜼 AHOM SIGN SMALL SECTIONU+1173D 𑜽 AHOM SIGN SECTION
U+11944 𑥄 DIVES AKURU DOUBLE DANDA
U+11C41 𑱁 BHAIKSUKI DANDAU+11C42 𑱂 BHAIKSUKI DOUBLE DANDA
U+16A6E 𖩮 MRO DANDAU+16A6F 𖩯 MRO DOUBLE DANDA

See also

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  • Vertical bar – Typographic symbol, |
  • Pilcrow – Symbol (¶) to identify a paragraph, the latin character-set equivalent of the double daṇḍa

Footnotes

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  1. Other terms used in various languages for variants of daṇḍa include kaan (or khan), shad (or shya), carik siki (doubled to carik pareren), ta-rol, mucaad, pada lingsa (doubled to pada lungsi) and section (mark).[1]

References

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  1. 1 2 "UTN #33: Dandas and More Dandas". www.unicode.org. Archived from the original on 2019-12-29. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 A.M., Ruppel (2017). The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1107088283.
  3. The Unicode® Standard Version 13.0 – Core Specification (PDF). Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium. 2020. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-936213-26-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-05. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  4. "Public Review Issue #59". www.unicode.org. Archived from the original on 2019-12-30. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
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  • Wiktionary logo The dictionary definition of danda at Wiktionary
  • Wiktionary logo The dictionary definition of दण्ड at Wiktionary