Correct Pronunciation of Sanskrit

[Narayan Joshi]

Prof Korada in recent posting

यद्यपि बहु नाधीषे तथापि पठ पुर व्याकरणम् ।

स्वजनः श्वजनो मा भूत् सकलं शकलं सकृत् शक्रुत् ॥

Each year the local Chinmay mission temple invites me to act as one of the examiners in yearly Geetaa chanting competition. The resident swami of the temple is another examiner. From the last 4 years I was requesting swamiji to see my power point presentation on Internal beauty (VarNavada) of Sanskrit. Finally he found time on May 27 of this year and sat with me for 3hours to see more than 100 slides. He was impressed and said that he was delighted to see the new dimension of Sanskrit. In my presentation I use examples of Indrashatru, svajana and shvajana, sakala and shakala, sakrut and shakrut and kaNa and ks’aNa. If change of accent changed outcome of Indrashatru, how much effect change of a phoneme will do? We see it clearly that change of a single phoneme causing changes in meaning in the listed examples. Meaning of VarNas will increase interest in Sanskrit and its correct pronunciation. Thanks. NRJOSHI

 

[Subrahmanyam Korada]

नमो विद्वद्भ्यः

You may quote Ramayanam etc --

ददर्श हनुमान् सीतां .....

संस्कारेण यथा हीनां वाचमर्थान्तरं गताम् ॥ (सुन्दर )

Thiis is thru व्यतिरेक  ।

संस्कारेण = शिक्षाव्याकरणसंस्कारेण ।

( हनूमान् इति शब्द्ः - ’ शरादीनां च ’ पा 6-3-120 , इति संज्ञायां मतौ दीर्घः )

Thru अन्वय --

संस्कारवत्येव गिरा मनीषी तया स पूतश्च विभूषितश्च ( कुमारसं )

तया = पार्वत्या ; सः = हिमवान्

From Ramayanam -

बहु व्याहरतानेन न किञ्चिदपभाषितम् 

Speaking at length is not a दोष (defect) -- Patanjali clarifies ---

वाचो ग्मिनिः  पा 5-2-124 , आलजाटजौ बहुभाषिणि  पा  5-2-125

’ बहुभाषिणि ’ is made अपकर्ष into वाचो ग्मिनिः  ---

भाष्यम् ( 5-2-125)

" यो हि सम्यग् बहु भाषते वाग्मी इत्येव स भवति  "।

यः कुत्सितं बहु भाषते सः - वाचालः / वाचाटः  ( ’ चितः ’ पा  अन्तोदात्तः )

’ स्याज्जल्पाकस्तु वाचालो वाचाटो बहुगर्ह्यवाक् ’ - अमरः ।

धन्यो’स्मि

Dr.Korada Subrahmanyam
Professor of Sanskrit, CALTS,
University of Hyderabad,
Ph:09866110741(M),91-40-23010741(R),040-23133660(O)

Skype Id: Subrahmanyam Korada

Blog: Koradeeyam.blogspot.in 

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[kamalesh pathak]

But sir I found no attachment of power point in your mail, posting will help learners and interested peoples, regards,

Kamlesh pathak from somnath

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[Venkata Sriram]

Namaste,

There was an interesting incident that happened in Bengal which I used to hear from my teacher who taught me चण्डी पाठः.  The method of recital of चण्डी पाठः consists of पूर्वांगः and उत्तरांगः respectively.  The पूर्वांगः consists of देवीकवच​, अर्गळ, कीलक​ where देवीकवचं is a prayer to Goddess Chandika for protection of oneself (self, entire limbs of body, one's wife, children, lineage etc.).  

A sample shloka is given below where Goddess Indrani is is prayed to protect one's gotra, Chandika for protection of agricultural livestock, 

Mahalakshmi for protection of one's progeny and Goddess Bhairavi for protection of one's better-half. 

गोत्रमिन्द्राणि! मे रक्षेत्पशून्मे रक्ष चण्डिके ।
पुत्रान् रक्षेन्महालक्ष्मीर्भार्यां रक्षतु भैरवी ॥ 40 ॥

The bengali archaka while chanting this shloka used to utter "bhakSatu" instead of "rakSatu" owing to the typos.  He used to get negative results and his wife used to suffer with ailments.  Interestingly "b" and "r" both look alike in Bengali script.  If we put a small dot (.) beneath the letter "b", it becomes "r". [Bengali Script : ব - b ; র - r]

Though, this could be a आख्यानं to give prime importance to the वर्णोच्चारणं, it should be noted that considerable importance was given to pronunciation that may give wrong results if mis-spelt.  

Also, the proper halt and care is compared to a tigress which, while moving from one place to another, holds it's cub with it's teeth at the neck.  The teeth neither injures the tender neck of the cub nor the cub slips off from the tigress's hold.  

regs,

sriram

[Dr BVK Sastry]

Namaste

 

1.     The illustration is drawing attention to ‘ Samskruth Pronunciation within the frame of Indian Context and Vedic Traditions of usage where faith- devotion  still plays a critical rule’.

 

2.    We have more stories where ‘ imperfect pronunciation’ is believed and practiced for  delivery of miracles for the devout practitioners’. One such usage is ‘    (nArAyaNa  -   nAreyaNa  ::     नारायण -  नारेयण ) . This is the story associated with the place called Kaivara at Karnataka.  The logic offered is : God undersands the intention wrapped in imperfect use of language ! (bhAvagrAhI janAradanaH   as against bhAshA roopI …).    

 

3.      The illustration is also a  pointer on the importance of training   ‘ Veda - Social - Service Provider ( Purohita/ Archaka)’ ,  for proper use of  ‘ Samskrutha –Varna – Uccharana’ in ‘ Mantra –prayoga’s   to render the ‘Veda – Samskrutha Mantras’ services ( at homes or Mandirs).  Many good meaning actions have ended up in delivering unwarranted unwanted results !

 

4.      The illustration is also a  pointer to  the importance  of education processes   to  ‘Create awareness on the  importance of ‘ Samskrutha Uccharna’   for getting the right results , for the less knowledgeable and  believing customer, who heavily  depend on social media, Television channel broadcasts of ‘ mantras’, youtube chants and facebook shares to ‘  grab and learn Veda- mantras’  as ‘Self- Education’ and ‘ Free for all exploration’.  

 

5.   There are several larger dimensions of this issue, which Indian language  academia and teams seeking Battle: Sanskrit  need to address. They are   : Challenges and outcomes in the  reading of Samskruth  in manuscripts of regional languages and ‘ Language –Grammar –Articulation ‘  for Alignments that need to be addressed as a part of academic  publications of ‘Shuddha –Paatha’ = Critically Edited Correct  rendition of Samskruth Text for Correct Pronunciation .  This is a different dimension of  Samskruth studies, deeply engaged with ‘ Critical editing of manuscripts and texts, on the Latin Scholastic model’.    

 

( Reading of Samskruth texts   through conventions of Romanization ,  Machine –Transcription and Translations,  and  Plurality of  scribing conventions including IPA / Diacritics on roman alphabets – is a bigger, dangerous and contemporarily challenging   stable to  clean up ! ).   

 

Summarily, there seems to be convergence of thought  on   ‘Recognition and Acknowledgement of the Problem facing Samskrutham: Correct Pronunciation’.  And This recognition- acknowledging the problem can be the first step to revisit the  ‘Shikshaa Foundation of Vyakarna’ .  One can not change unless one acknowledges the existence of a Problem. (Dr. Yadu in some earlier post has said this).

 

This foundational  traditional model, the Varna- Uccharana -Yoga way of starting Samskruth studies, recommended as ‘Vedanga Vyakarana Paddahti’  was sacrificed at the altar of ‘ Classical Language Status seeking and modeling of Samskrutham’  in academia and ‘ Social Conversation model push to popularize Sanskrit’.     So much so that one of the prestigious institutions  offering Sanskrit studies had made an open declaration: ‘ There is no need to read or utter even a single Sanskrit word for successful completion of the program; it was considered enough to have the skill of reading the script ( in anglicized diacritics mode) ‘.  

 

Look for Action suggestions and support.

 

Regards

BVK Sastry

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[S. L. Abhyankar]

What should be English spelling of संस्कृतम् ? What makes most people in south India tend to use "tha" instead of "ta" ? 

I get to think that all संस्कृत words should be written in देवनागरी only, period. That would avoid all mistakes of pronunciation also, such as भक्षक instead of रक्षक, गीथा instead of गीता, etc. 

[विश्वासो वासुकेयः]

सोमवार, 5 जून 2017 को 4:46:14 अपर UTC-7 को, अभ्यंकरकुलोत्पन्नः श्रीपादः | ने लिखा:

What should be English spelling of संस्कृतम् ?

Who are we to decide that? :-) As amitabh bhacchan says "English is a phunny language" - many alternatives spring up. 
 

What makes most people in south India tend to use "tha" instead of "ta" ? 

To avoid mistakenly meaning ट while not caring about confusion with mahAprANa थ. The English spelling "the" is pronounced without mahAprANa thereabouts.  

 

[kamalesh pathak]

Vasukeyji, observation from Sri abhyankar is very true, no matter any popular person like navchandi may say anything for any language why should we care for their words? If we all -the members of this group are firm and committed to re establish the moral of संंस्क्रुत भाषा we have to continue our efforts,

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[Subrahmanyam Korada]

नमो विद्वद्भ्यः

शतायुष्मान् भव --- हतायुष्मान् भव (अस्साम् / अहम्) ।

धन्योस्मि

[Ashok Gudsoorkar]

Dr Korada, Dr Shastry and other scholars,  my Pranaams.

Though this thread has been closed, I am tempted to raise one intimately related issue here. 

The issue is- One knows well the writing of words, sentences or verses in Sanskrit in grammatically correct way, but is not able to pronounce or recite in a correct fashion due to some tongue/teeth defects and also inadequate knowledge of pronunciations. 

The case is 'I myself'. I have memorised many Stotras and a few Rigvedic Suktas which are very dear to me. I have written down in grammatically correct way;  but, I am not able to pronounce in acceptable/ pleasant way. 

With recommendation of some renowned Vedic scholars, I joined a good Vedic school (Ashram) in Maharashtra and stayed there for two months (along with all young Vidyarthis ) to learn correct pronunciations. With God's Grace , I received 'Santhas' and could learn to pronounce/recite some Suktas (10-12 no ) fairly well to the satisfaction of Pandits/ Adhyapakas there.  But, somehow, I was not able to acquire that skill for normal Stotras. The Adhyapakas give 'Santhas' for Suktas only and not for Stotras.  As I observe the main difficulties in correct pronunciations are regulated breathing and pauses at correct places. 

I shall be really grateful if some scholars give me guidelines for correct pronunciations of Stotras and Suktas both. May be, some books/links are available.

Warm Regards.

-Ashok Gudsoorkar.

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[Achyut Karve]

You may find this link useful.

https://youtu.be/DADpRWGGRC0

[Ashok Gudsoorkar]

Thank you Shri Karveji for the link. I will study thoroughly.

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[ushavishnuvamsi .]

शाला = हाला = hall

2017, ജൂലൈ 1 8:04 PM-ന്, "'Ashok Gudsoorkar' via भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्" <bvpar...@googlegroups.com> എഴുതി:

[ushavishnuvamsi .]

शैलम् हैलम् hill

2017, ജൂലൈ 1 9:38 PM-ന്, എഴുതി:

[Subrahmanyam Korada]

Dr Ashok Gudsoorkar

If you want good pronunciation of Stotras / Suktas  Links etc may not help . Physical interaction is a must .

You may come down to Hyderabad for a couple of days and I can help you - I do not charge.

Pl let me know - there are other students coming to study Sastras.

Subham bhuyat

Dr.Korada Subrahmanyam
Professor of Sanskrit, CALTS,
University of Hyderabad,
Ph:09866110741(M),91-40-23010741(R),040-23133660(O)

Skype Id: Subrahmanyam Korada

Blog: Koradeeyam.blogspot.in