View source for Danda

{{Short description|Punctuation mark in Indic scripts}}
{{about|the Brahmic punctuation character||Danda (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox punctuation mark
 | mark    = ।
 | name    = Daṇḍa
 | unicode = {{unichar|0964}}
}}
In [[Indic scripts]], the '''daṇḍa''' ([[Sanskrit]]: दण्ड ''{{IAST|daṇḍa}}'' "stick"){{efn|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'', [[Javanese script#Punctuation|''pada lingsa'']] (doubled to ''pada lungsi'') and ''section (mark)''.<ref name="utn33"/>}} is a [[punctuation]] mark.<ref name=Ruppel>{{cite book
 | last = A.M.
 | first = Ruppel
 | title = The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | date = 2017
 | location = New York
 | pages = 33
 | language = English
 | isbn = 978-1107088283
}}</ref> The [[glyph]] consists of a single vertical stroke. 

== Use ==
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.<ref name=Ruppel/> No distinct punctuation is used to mark questions or exclamations, which must be inferred from other aspects of the sentence.<ref name=Ruppel/> 

In metrical texts, a double daṇḍa is used to delimit verses, and a single daṇḍa to delimit a [[pada (foot)|pada]], line, or semi-verse. In prose, the double daṇḍa is used to mark the end of a paragraph, a story, or section.<ref name=Ruppel/>

== Computer encoding ==
The [[Devanagari]] character can be found at [[character encoding|code point]] U+0964 ({{script|Deva|।}}) in [[Unicode]]. The "double daṇḍa" is at U+0965 ({{script|Deva|॥}}). The Unicode standard recommends using this character also in other [[Indic scripts]], like Bengali, Telugu, Oriya, and others.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/UnicodeStandard-13.0.pdf|title=The Unicode® Standard Version 13.0 – Core Specification|publisher=The Unicode Consortium|year=2020|isbn=978-1-936213-26-9|location=Mountain View, CA|pages=278|access-date=2020-11-26|archive-date=2020-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005161924/https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/UnicodeStandard-13.0.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Encoding it separately for every Indic script was proposed,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Public Review Issue #59|url=https://www.unicode.org/review/pr-59.html|access-date=2020-11-26|website=www.unicode.org|archive-date=2019-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230030228/http://unicode.org/review/pr-59.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but this has not been implemented.

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]].<ref name="utn33">{{Cite web|title=UTN #33: Dandas and More Dandas|url=https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn33/|access-date=2020-11-26|website=www.unicode.org|archive-date=2019-12-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229162004/http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn33/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[ISCII]] encodes daṇḍa at 0xEA.

==See also==
*[[Vertical bar]]

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{wiktionary-inline|danda}}
* {{wiktionary-inline|दण्ड}}

[[Category:Devanagari]]
[[Category:Grammar]]
[[Category:Syntax]]
[[Category:Punctuation]]