Lesson 24

Simple Sanskrit – Lesson 24

Having discussed स्वरसंधि-s in lessons 21, 22 and 23, logically the next step should be to discuss व्यञ्जनसंधि-s and then विसर्गसंधि-s. But it comes to mind that I should devote this lesson to शिवसूत्राणि, also known as माहेश्वरसूत्राणि or प्रत्याहारसूत्राणि.

In Lesson 21, I had made a statement “.. I would think that explaining the rules and patterns, by explaining the पाणिनिसूत्र-s would eminently be beyond the scope of “Simple Sanskrit”. ..” One may ask, “Does it become good to discuss शिवसूत्राणि as a part of Simple Sanskrit ?

I would think it is not only good, rather helpful to discuss शिवसूत्राणि. For one thing शिवसूत्राणि are not as complex as पाणिनिसूत्र-s. They are just 14 lists of Sanskrit alphabets or वर्ण-s. But the arrangement of वर्ण-s is different from the way one learns them when learning the देवनागरी script.

The arrangement is different because in शिवसूत्राणि the वर्ण-s are arranged by their phonetic characteristics.

In the script also the वर्ण-s have some logic of phonetic characteristics, such as place from where the वर्ण emanates, viz. from throat कण्ठ्य (क-वर्ग), from teeth दन्त्य (च-वर्ग), from gums तालव्य (त-वर्ग), from the roof मूर्धन्य (ट-वर्ग), from lips ओष्ठ्य (प-वर्ग). Every वर्ग has a set of 5 वर्ण-s again in an order, first two वर्ण-s are कठोर, next two are मृदु and fifth one is nasal अनुनासिक.

In शिवसूत्राणि वर्ण-s are in an order, such that it becomes easy to explain or understand how two वर्ण-s mix with each other, which is what happens in संधि-s. That is the reason, why it becomes not only good, rather helpful to discuss शिवसूत्राणि in the context of संधि-s.

Let me enumerate the शिवसूत्राणि.