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Final m

Various options are available to write a Tamil word ending in m.

In the case of Sanskrit loan-words, use is often made of a conjunct letter, the last component of which appears to be the Grantha character m.

ṇam

Let us take the word caraṇam, from Sanskrit śaraṇa, “refuge, protection”.

BnF Indien 974, U2, f1r, detail. Courtesy of the BnF. The word is here written caraṇam in Tamil characters only.

BnF Indien 551, U1, f7r, detail. Courtesy of the BnF. The word is here written caṟaṇam in Tamil characters only, but with instead of expected r.

BnF Indien 551, U7, f2r, detail. Courtesy of the BnF. The word is here written caraṇa=m in Tamil characters only, but for the final character, which is a conjunct character combining ṇa and what appears to be the Grantha character m.

Various options

One and the same copyist can use various options, as in the following example.

BnF Indien 954, U1, f1r, detail. Courtesy of the BnF.

These marginal benedictions read:

tirucciṟṟampalam
vātavūrppurāṇa=m
tēvicakāyaciva

In line 2, we find the conjunct character ṇa=m, while in line 3, instead of using conjunct characters, the Grantha character m is used independently and bears a virāma (transliterated here with “·“)