According to the xelatex output in the following example both variants are not correct. What would be needed would be the first two glyphs from variant 1 (knd2 script) and the third from variant 2 (knda script). Pictures comparing the output can be found at https://github.com/u-fischer/luaotfload/issues/20 (Disclaimer: I have no idea if xelatex/harfbuzz is correct here, but https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/457427/2388 says so). \definefontfeature [kannada-testA] [indic-common] [script=knd2, % basic shaping pref=yes, blwf=yes, half=yes, pstf=yes, cjct=yes ] \definefontfeature [kannada-testB] %identical to default kannada-one [indic-common] [script=knda, % basic shaping pref=yes, blwf=yes, half=yes, pstf=yes, cjct=yes ] \definefont [kannadatestA][file:notosanskannada-regular.ttf*kannada-testA] \definefont [kannadatestB][file:notosanskannada-regular.ttf*kannada-testB] \starttext \section{Skript knd2} \kannadatestA ಕಿ ಕ್ರ ರ್ಕ \section{Skript knda (default)} \kannadatestB ಕಿ ಕ್ರ ರ್ಕ \stoptext -- Ulrike Fischer http://www.troubleshooting-tex.de/