Editing Om (section)

=== South Asia ===
[[File:Shiva as the Lord of Dance LACMA edit.jpg|thumb|Statue depicting [[Shiva]] as the [[Nataraja]] dancing in a posture resembling the Devangari ligature for ''Om''; [[Joseph Campbell]] argued that the [[Nataraja]] statue represents ''Om'' as a symbol of the entirety of "consciousness, universe" and "the message that God is within a person and without"<ref>Joseph Campbell (1949), ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'', 108f.</ref>]]

[[Nāgarī script|Nagari]] or [[Devanagari]] representations are found [[Epigraphy|epigraphically]] on sculpture dating from [[Medieval India]] and on ancient coins in regional scripts throughout South Asia. ''Om'' is represented in [[Devanagari]] as '''{{lang|sa|ओम्}}''', composed of four elements: the [[Devanagari#Vowels|vowel letter]] {{script|Deva|अ}}{{nbsp}}({{IAST|a}}), the [[Devanagari#Vowel diacritics|vowel diacritic]] {{script|Deva|ो}}{{nbsp}}({{IAST|o}}), the [[Devanagari#Consonants|consonant letter]] {{script|Deva|म}}{{nbsp}}({{IAST|m}}), and the ''[[virama]]'' stroke {{script|Deva|्}} which indicates the absence of an implied final vowel. Historically, the combination {{script|Deva|ओ}} represented a diphthong, often transcribed as {{IAST|au}}, but it now represents a long vowel, {{IAST|ō}}. (See [[#Pronunciation|above]].) The syllable is sometimes written '''{{lang|sa|ओ३म्}}''', where {{script|Deva|३}} (i.e., the digit "3") explicitly indicates ''[[Pluti|pluta]]'' ('three times as long') which is otherwise only implied. For this same reason ''Om'' may also be written '''{{lang|hi|ओऽम्}}''' in languages such as [[Hindi]], with the {{IAST|[[avagraha]]}} ({{script|Deva|ऽ}}) being used to indicate prolonging the vowel sound. (However, this differs from the usage of the {{IAST|avagraha}} in [[Sanskrit]], where it would instead indicate the [[prodelision]] of the initial vowel.) ''Om'' may also be written '''{{lang|hi|ओं}}''', with an {{IAST|[[Anusvara|anusvāra]]}} reflecting the pronunciation of {{IPA|sa|õː|}} in languages such as Hindi. In languages such as [[Urdu]] and [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]] ''Om'' may be written '''{{script|Arab|اوم}}''' in [[Arabic script]], although speakers of these languages may also use Devanagari representations.

The commonly seen representation of the syllable ''Om,'' '''{{lang|sa|{{large|ॐ}}}}''', is a [[cursive]] [[Typographic ligature|ligature]] in [[Devanagari]], combining {{script|Deva|अ}}{{nbsp}}({{IAST|a}}) with {{script|Deva|उ}}{{nbsp}}({{IAST|u}}) and the [[chandrabindu]] ([[ँ]],{{nbsp}}{{IAST|ṃ}}). In [[Unicode]], the symbol is encoded at {{unichar|0950|Devanagari OM|ulink=Devanagari (Unicode block)}} and at {{unichar|1f549|OM Symbol|ulink=Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs}} as a "generic symbol independent of Devanagari font".<ref>https://unicodeplus.com/U+095 0 Unicode Character "ॐ" (U+0950) </ref>

In some South Asian [[writing system]]s, the ''Om'' symbol has been simplified further. In [[Bengali–Assamese script|Bengali and Assamese]] ''Om'' is written simply as '''{{script|Beng|ওঁ}}''' without an additional curl. In languages such as [[Bengali language|Bengali]] differences in pronunciation compared to Sanskrit have made the addition of a curl for {{IAST|u}} redundant. Although the spelling is simpler, the pronunciation remains {{IPA|bn|õː|}}. Similarly, in [[Odia script|Odia]] ''Om'' is written as '''{{script|Orya|ଓଁ}}''' without an additional diacritic.

In [[Tamil script|Tamil]], ''Om'' is written as {{script|Taml|ௐ}}, a ligature of {{lang|ta|ஓ}} (''ō'') and {{lang|ta|ம்}} (''m''), while in [[Kannada script|Kannada]], [[Telugu script|Telugu]], and [[Malayalam script|Malayalam]], ''Om'' is written simply as the letter for ''ō'' followed by {{IAST|anusvāra}} ({{lang|kn|ಓಂ}}, {{lang|te|ఓం}}, and {{lang|ml|ഓം}}, respectively).

There have been proposals that the ''Om'' syllable may already have had written representations in [[Brahmi script]], dating to before the [[Common Era]]. A proposal by Deb (1921) held that the ''[[swastika]]'' is a [[monogram]]matic representation of the syllable ''Om'', wherein two Brahmi /o/ characters ({{unichar|11011|Brahmi letter O}}) were superposed crosswise and the 'm' was represented by dot.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Deb |first=Harit Krishna |title=The Svastika and the Oṁkāra |year=1921 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal |volume=17 |number=3 |pages=231–247 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/97555#page/313/}}</ref> A commentary in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' (1922) considers this theory questionable and unproven.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=September 1922 |title=Research Items: The Swastika, Gammadion, Fylfot |journal=Nature |volume=110 |issue=2758 |page=365 |doi=10.1038/110365a0 |s2cid=4114094 |issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free }} {{Google books|1bMzAQAAMAAJ|The Swastika|page=PA365}}</ref> [[A. B. Walawalkar]] (1951) proposed that ''Om'' was represented using the Brahmi symbols for "A", "U", and "M" ({{script|Brah|𑀅𑀉𑀫}}), and that this may have influenced the unusual [[epigraphic]]al features of the symbol {{script|Deva|ॐ}} for ''Om''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Ankita |year=2011 |title=Rediscovering the Brahmi Script |url=http://www.mrane.com/images/bramhi.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003025656/https://mrane.com/images/bramhi.pdf |archive-date=3 October 2015 |publisher=Industrial Design Center, IDC, IIT |location=Bombay}} See the section, "Ancient Symbols".</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kak |first=SC |year=1990 |title=Indus and Brahmi: Further Connections |journal=Cryptologia |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=169–183|doi=10.1080/0161-119091864878 }}</ref> [[Henry Parker (author)|Parker]] (1909) wrote that an "Aum monogram", distinct from the swastika, is found among [[Tamil-Brahmi]] [[Tamil inscriptions in Sri Lanka|inscriptions in Sri Lanka]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Parker (author) |title=Ancient Ceylon  |year=1909 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientceylon00hpar/page/428/ 428]}}</ref> including [[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Anuradhapura era]] coins, dated from the 1st to 4th centuries CE, which are embossed with ''Om'' along with other symbols.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Henry |title=Ancient Ceylon  |year=1909 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientceylon00hpar/page/490/ 490]}}</ref>