In addition to the vowels, consonants and aytam of the Tamil alphabet, there are several additional letters used mainly in writing loanwords from Sanskrit and other languages. These letters are called Grantha letters and aren't considered part of the original Tamil alphabet. Some writers try to avoid using them whenever possible. Even my Tamil dictionary published by Fajar Bakti doesn't have a listing of these letters.
To recap, these letters are ja, Srii, Sa, ha, sha and ksha. ஜ ஸ்ரீ ஸ ஹ ஷ க்ஷ. If a Tamil word has any one of these letters it's most likely a loanword, mainly from Sanskrit but some are from English and Arabic.
Quite a number of common words use Grantha letters, such as janangal ஜனங்கள் (people), juram ஜுரம் (fever), juulai ஜூலை (July), kashtam கஷ்டம் (trouble), varusham வருஷம் (year), rishi ரிஷி (no exact English translation, an approximation would be divine scribe or poet-sage through which the Vedas flowed), kshatriya க்ஷத்ரிய (warrior), nimisham நிமிஷம் (minute as a measure of time), puujai பூஜை (prayer), roojaa ரோஜா (rose), raajaa ராஜா (king), hatiiS ஹதீஸ் (hadith), hindi ஹிந்தி (Hindi), hoottal ஹோட்டல் (hotel), puStakam புஸ்தகம் (book), Staanam ஸ்தான (place, position), jananaayagam ஜனநாயகம் (democracy).
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