Having finished her work, Sharmila left home at 8:00 PM. Identify the word class of the underlined word 'Having'.

'Having finished' is a perfect participle phrase that modifies the subject 'Sharmila' and describes an action completed before the main verb 'left'. 'Having' here is the perfect participle form of the verb 'have' used to form the participial phrase. Hence it is classified as a Participle.