Virama ( ्) is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and Eastern Nagari script, used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end". As a Sanskrit word, it is used in place of several language-specific terms, such as halant ( ्), halant ( ्)hoshonto ( ্), halantu ( ్), pulli ( ்), chandrakkala ( ്), halanta ( ್), halanta ( ୍), halant ( ୍), a that (, a.sat , lit. "nonexistence" ်), and karan ( ) or thanthakhat ( ).