The Kannada varnamale (ವರ್ಣಮಾಲೆ, literally "garland of letters") is the 49-letter Kannada alphabet: 15 swaragalu (ಸ್ವರಗಳು, vowels) and 34 vyanjanagalu (ವ್ಯಂಜನಗಳು, consonants), with the consonants organized into phonetic groups called vargas (ವರ್ಗಗಳು). If you keep meeting these terms in homework diaries, poster charts, and app menus, this guide walks through the whole structure — the Kannada varnamale in English, so to speak — one piece at a time.
One reassuring fact before we start: Kannada is fully phonetic. Every letter stands for one consistent sound, there are no silent letters, and there are no irregular spellings. Learn the 49 letters and you can sound out nearly any Kannada word.
Swaragalu (ಸ್ವರಗಳು): the 15 vowels
A swara is a vowel — a sound you can say entirely on its own, with no help from another letter. These are the first letters every child learns, and the 15 break down neatly:
- Five short/long pairs (hrasva/deergha): ಅ/ಆ, ಇ/ಈ, ಉ/ಊ, ಎ/ಏ, ಒ/ಓ. The long vowel is the same sound held roughly twice as long.
- Two diphthongs: ಐ (ai, as in "ice") and ಔ (au, as in "cow").
- One Sanskrit-origin vowel: ಋ (ru).
- Two yogavahas: ಅಂ (the anusvara, a nasal hum) and ಅಃ (the visarga, a breathy release).
Vowel length is not a decoration — it changes meaning. ಹಲ್ಲು (hallu) means "tooth"; stretch that first vowel and ಹಾಲು (haalu) means "milk." That's why teachers always drill the short and long vowels as pairs rather than as separate letters.
The two yogavahas are the odd ones out: they're neither pure vowels nor consonants, but they always ride along with a vowel sound, so Karnataka school charts count them with the swaragalu. That's how 13 vowels become the 15 you see on every classroom wall. For a sound-by-sound walkthrough of all of them, see our Kannada pronunciation guide.
Vyanjanagalu (ವ್ಯಂಜನಗಳು): the 34 consonants
A vyanjana is a consonant. Because Kannada is an abugida, every consonant letter carries a built-in "a" sound — ಕ is "ka," never a bare "k." The 34 consonants split into two sets.
The first 25 are the structured consonants (ವರ್ಗೀಯ ವ್ಯಂಜನಗಳು), arranged in a genuinely brilliant 5×5 grid. Each row is a varga — a group named for its first letter and defined by where in the mouth the sound is made, moving from the throat forward to the lips:
| Varga (mouth position) | Plain | + aspiration | Voiced | Voiced + aspiration | Nasal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ಕ-ವರ್ಗ (velar — throat) | ಕ ka | ಖ kha | ಗ ga | ಘ gha | ಙ ṅa |
| ಚ-ವರ್ಗ (palatal — mid-mouth) | ಚ cha | ಛ chha | ಜ ja | ಝ jha | ಞ ña |
| ಟ-ವರ್ಗ (retroflex — tongue curled) | ಟ ṭa | ಠ ṭha | ಡ ḍa | ಢ ḍha | ಣ ṇa |
| ತ-ವರ್ಗ (dental — tongue at teeth) | ತ ta | ಥ tha | ದ da | ಧ dha | ನ na |
| ಪ-ವರ್ಗ (labial — lips) | ಪ pa | ಫ pha | ಬ ba | ಭ bha | ಮ ma |
Notice the columns: within every varga, the five letters follow the exact same pattern — a plain sound, the same sound with a puff of air (aspiration), the voiced version, the voiced version with a puff of air, and finally the nasal made at that same mouth position.
The remaining nine consonants sit outside the grid. These are the avargeeya (unstructured) consonants: ಯ ರ ಲ ವ ಶ ಷ ಸ ಹ ಳ. Most map closely to English sounds; the last one, ಳ (a curled-tongue "l," as in ಹಳ್ಳಿ, haḷḷi, "village"), is distinctly Kannada. Our full Kannada alphabet chart lists every one of these letters with an English sound hint.
Why this structure is a gift for learners
Most alphabets are arbitrary lists — there's no reason B follows A. The Kannada consonant grid, inherited from ancient Indian phonetics, is different: it's a map of the mouth. Rows move from the throat to the lips; columns add aspiration, voicing, and nasality in a fixed order.
That means once a child learns the pattern of one varga — plain, puff of air, voiced, voiced puff, nasal — they've effectively learned all five. Twenty-five consonants collapse into one pattern applied at five mouth positions. This is exactly why teachers work through consonants in varga order rather than randomly, and why our step-by-step teaching plan follows the same sequence.
The free Learn Kannada Akshara app groups letters exactly this way — vowels as the Basic set, consonants by varga — with tap-to-hear native audio and guided finger tracing for every one of the 49 letters.
Kannada varnamale vs. kagunita vs. barakhadi vs. ottakshara
These four terms describe different layers of learning to read, and they come in a natural order.
Varnamale is the alphabet itself — the 49 base letters covered above.
Kagunita (ಕಾಗುಣಿತ) is the consonant–vowel combination table. Take one consonant and merge it with each vowel in turn, and you get a row like this for ಕ:
ಕ ಕಾ ಕಿ ಕೀ ಕು ಕೂ ಕೃ ಕೆ ಕೇ ಕೈ ಕೊ ಕೋ ಕೌ ಕಂ ಕಃ
That's ka, kaa, ki, kee, ku, koo and so on — one syllable for every vowel. Every consonant has a row like this, and together they cover nearly every syllable in the language.
Barakhadi is the same combination table under a different name. The term is more common in Marathi and Gujarati, but it appears on many chart posters sold across India, which is why parents often meet both words for the same thing.
Ottakshara (ಒತ್ತಕ್ಷರ) are conjunct consonants — two consonants stacked into one glyph, like the ಕ್ಕ in ಅಕ್ಕ (akka, "elder sister"). These are the last piece of the reading puzzle.
The learning order matters: varnamale first, then kagunita, then ottakshara. A child who knows the 49 base letters cold will find kagunita rows almost self-explanatory — each one is just a familiar consonant wearing different vowel marks. Trying to rush ahead to combinations before the base letters are solid is the most common way home practice stalls.
Mini-FAQ
What is the difference between varnamale, kagunita, and barakhadi?
Varnamale is the Kannada alphabet itself — the 49 base letters. Kagunita is the consonant–vowel combination table built from those letters (ಕ, ಕಾ, ಕಿ, ಕೀ and so on). Barakhadi refers to the same combination table; the term simply comes from Marathi and Gujarati and appears on many chart posters sold across India.
What are yogavahas in Kannada?
The yogavahas are ಅಂ (anusvara, a nasal hum) and ಅಃ (visarga, a breathy release). They are neither pure vowels nor consonants — they ride along with a vowel sound — but Karnataka school charts count them with the vowels, which is how Kannada gets 15 swaragalu.
Why do some charts show 50 or more Kannada letters?
Older charts include the archaic vowel ೠ and the obsolete consonants ಱ and ೞ, which are no longer used in modern Kannada. Schools today teach the 49-letter varnamale: 15 vowels and 34 consonants.
