Unicode Trivia U+0BD0

Codepoint: U+0BD0 "TAMIL OM"
Block: U+0B80..0BFF "Tamil"

Looking for mildly interesting facts within a Unicode block means a bit of research. Take block U+0B80..0BFF "Tamil"; here are my go-to places for information:

1. Wikipedia (language, script and block)
2. Unicode code chart
3. Unicode core specification (Section 12.6)
4. ScriptSource
5. Omniglot
6. Richard Ishida's excellent r12a

Obviously, many of these sites link to other resources. And therein lies the "fun".

Looking at the official code chart I found U+0BD0 "TAMIL OM". Of this codepoint, r12a says:

OM is a religious concept found in all three major religions born in India viz. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. ௐ [U+0BD0 TAMIL OM] is widely used in Hindu religious texts, temple publications, and as neon lamps of sign boards in shops etc.

Hmm. That's a bit jarring, isn't it? How did the reference to "neon lamps of sign boards in shops" make it into a list of sacred uses? A quick google of that exact phrase only turns up references to r12a. But I cannot imagine Richard Ishida conjuring up that phrase from thin air.

ௐ

U+0BD0 "TAMIL OM" was added in Unicode 5.1 (April 2008); recently enough for there to be quite a good paper trail. Indeed, the proposal (N3119) to add it was submitted in April 2006 by the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) Working Group 2 (WG02). Section 2.1 of the proposal says:

Devanagari and Gujarati scripts have a sign named OM in their Unicode ranges. However in Tamil the corresponding slot is left vacant. Gurmukhi script also has an OM sign. Tamil OM sign is widely used in Hindu religious texts, temple publications, and as neon lamps of sign boards in shops etc. OM is a religious concept found in all three major religions born in India viz. Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. This document proposes to add the character TAMIL OM in Unicode Tamil range at U+0BD0.

Surely this must be the source of the "neon lamps" narrative? Somehow Google haven't (yet) indexed it.

Written proposals to the Unicode committee usually have examples (known as "attestations") attached to their end. Alas, proposal N3119 does not provide a photograph of a neon shop sign.

It is also surprisingly difficult to find shop signage featuring the Tamil Om on the internet; though other Oms are available. The only good match I found was this:

[source]

This is from the IndiaMART page of Sudha Neon Lights of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Om is in green; the red "spear" is Vel , the divine javelin of Murugan, the Hindu God of war. The blue text underneath is, I believe, "முருகா" or "Muruga", an alternative spelling of Murugan.

Given the paucity of images of neon lamp signage in shops incorporating Tamil Om, I wonder just how common it is in Southern India and where the suggestion in N3119 actually comes from. Alas, INFITT/WG02 was dissolved some time before May 2020, so we may never know.