There are two different scripts to show vowels.
Independent vowel forms
These are used when the vowel occurs alone, at the beginning of a word, or after another vowel. In other words, the independent form is used whenever there is no consonant for the vowel to attach to.
In most dictionaries, for the ordering of the alphabet, the vowels come first, and they use this independent form. See : viewtopic.php?p=48195-official-resource ... dia#p48195
Matra मात्रा vowel forms
These are diacritical like marks that are placed around a constonant to represent a vowel sound.
Every consonant letter by itself automatically includes a short "a" vowel sound unless otherwise specified. This short "a" sound is like the "a" in English "about" or "career." In linguistics, this sound has a special name: "schwa ." Thus the letter क is pronounced like the first syllable of the word "career" (consonant and vowel together).
A consonant's "schwa" can be changed to any other vowel by using a " matra " sign. A matra sign is attached to the consonant letter. The matras are also called the dependant forms of the vowels. A matra is used to indicate that a vowel is attached to a consonant.
As a consonant's "default vowel," is the short "a", there is no matra for the short "a".
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