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Gutterals

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within the image did not work

Palatals

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within the image did not work

Cerebrals

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within the image did not work

Dentals

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Labials

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Semi-Vowels, Sibilants etc..

Click here to here the Semi-vowels, Sibilants etc. if clicking
within the image did not work

Consonant-vowel combinations

Conjunct Characters (Samyuktakshar)

Samyuktakshar or a conjunct character represents a syllable made
up of two or more consonants from the basic set. In forming syllables,
the Samyuktakshar will combine with one of the vowels.

In principle, arbitrary syllables may be formed by randomly
combining consonants and writing the conjunct using half forms for
all the consonants in the syllable except for the final. The final
consonant of the syllable is writen in full form.

With a basic set of 33 consonants, the number of conjuncts
which we can theoretically form is quite large. Typically,
33x33+33x33x33+3x33x33x33+....... conjuncts may be possible.
However, arbitrary combinations cannot be always pronounced. In
practice, one observes approximately a thousand conjuncts most of
which have two or three consonants in them. There are some with four
and at least one well known conjunct with five consonants.

Writing methods for conjuncts

Identifying conjuncts in written text is important for several
reasons. Traditionally, Sanskrit verses were composed to conform
to specific metre comprising a fixed number of aksharas. Hence
the writing systems also provided some mechanism to form conjuncts
from the consonants. The use of the "half form" introduced earlier
is a practice allowed for many conjuncts particularly those which
include a vertical stroke in their shapes. Since the half form is
not clearly defined for all the consonants, special shapes
were introduced for some of the conjuncts.
Thus the actual shapes for many conjuncts were altered but in a way
allowing enough clues to identify the individual consonants.

In many cases, the individual consonants were written one below
the other vertically but with reduced sizes to accommodate writing the
conjunct within a vertical span. In some cases, a combination of
"half form" and writing one below the other was adopted. It must
be pointed out that considerable flexibility exists in writing
the conjuncts, though by convention, some shapes have become the
standard. Let s look at some examples.

Samyuktakshar and vowel combinations

The rules for writing syllables with samyuktakshar and vowels
are the same as the ones for writing consonant-vowel combinations.
The matras are used exactly the same way as before and will apply to
the last consonant in the syllable except for "i" where the matra will
appear before all the half-forms when half-forms are used. When
the shape of the conjunct is very different, its shape may be viewed
as that of a consonant itself and the matras added appropriately.

Conjuncts with "ra"

Summary

In this lesson, we have seen the aksharas of Sanskrit. The vowels
and consonants were introduced independently. The concept of conjunct
characters was also discussed and examples of the writing methods for
conjuncts were shown.

The student should practice writing the aksharas and slowly
develop the skills to identify the aksharas and thus read short
sentences.

Typesetting Devanagari

Typesetting Devanagari is a complex job involving careful
selection of typefaces for each of the conjuncts. The form of writing
the consonsnts one below the other was not favoured for conjuncts
with more than two consonsnts since this would increase the vertical
height of the conjunct. When it was indeed done, the individual
consonants had to be reduced in size to such an extent that in
some cases intelligiblity became a problem.

We must mention here the contributions from Franz Velthuis,
Dominik Wujastyk and more recently Wikner, who have made
available a fine facility to print Devanagari through Tex,
a typesetting Program developed by Prof. Knuth. Much of the
work related to transliterated forms of Devanagari input (such
as ITRANS) is credited to their work. In particular, Wikner has
designed nearly a thousand conjuncts. The software relating to
this is usually seen in the archives for Tex. Interested readers
may take a look at Wikner's conjuncts by printing the document
sktdoc.600ps available from ftp.nacdh4.nac.ac.za/wikner/

The normal practice in India (during the past 50 years or so)
has been to use the half form as well the one below the other form
effectively so as not to increase the vertical height of the character.
The choice of combining the half forms with vertically arranged
combinations was often exercised by the typesetter and so it is not
unusual to find different representations for the same conjunct.

Lesson-1

The previous lesson dealt with the Devanagari Script. By now the student
should be familiar with the aksharas of Sanskrit and be able to read words
and sentences by successively pronouncing the aksharas in a word.

A phonetic language has its advantages. Once you know the aksharas
you can read any sentence. The pronunciation is fixed by the aksharas!
This is what we meant by "Eternal aspect of the sound of the aksharas" in
our write up on why one should study Sanskrit.

Now let us look at the lesson

Lesson 2

Lesson 2 deals with simple expressions again, but introduces the
different forms taken by a noun in respect of number and gender. By this
time, the student would have had the opportunity to identify and pronounce
the Sanskrit aksharas. Roman transliteration is continued in this lesson
too, to help some with the pronunciation of the words.

Introduction

Expressions with personal pronouns

Use of (to be) in two ways

Number and Gender

Glossary

Exercises-1

Exercises-2

Exercises-3

Sanskrit Numerals

Summary

The Science of Sound: A Sanskrit approach.

Lesson 3

This is the third lesson in our series. The first two would
have helped the student understand the aksharas of Sanskrit and also
form some simple questions. The vocabulary introduced thus far has
only been small but adequate to form very simple sentences using the
verb "to be".

This lesson introduces a simple conversation that takes place
in a family during the day. The idea is to bring in words and expressions
used in daily life. There are more exercises this time and the sections
relating to the grammar have useful information.

There are many new words in this lesson. It will be necessary for
the student to look at the glossary given as part of this lesson to
get the meanings of those words where the meaning is not given in the
translations.

Contents.

Early Morning

Later in the Morning

In the Afternoon

Later in the Evening

Basic Grammar

Imperative mood

Formation of sentences

Frame questions

Exercises-1

Exercises 2-3

Exercises 4-5

Exercises 6-7

Exercises 8-9

Summary

Siksha

Glossary

Special Note

The IITM software is now able to cater to systems that have installed
Devanagari Fonts xdvng. If you have installed these fonts in your system
you will be able to see the lesson much quicker since the server will
send an html file containing only text, as opposed to the older approach
where an image gets sent with the consequent increase in download times.

There is no reason to assume that xdvng will be available in all browsers
though the fonts have been made available for the important platforms,
Windows, Unix and the Macintosh. If you do not have the fonts installed,
you can continue to see the lesson the old way via images.

Clicking the link below will bring you the fonts based version.
In this lesson, only the lesson part is available in this manner. You will
be able to save the html file and look at the lesson off line as well.
However, you will not be able to view it in transliterated form since
xdvng supports only Devanagari.

A short Exam for the student.

Often it helps to find out your level of understanding of the
language by asking yourself a few simple questions. We give below some
questions for you. If you are able to answer all the questions to
your own satisfaction, then you are a motivated student. All students
are not equally motivated. Some require to be pushed a little bit.

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LESSON -4 : Friends

This is the fourth lesson in our series on "Learn Sanskrit
through Self Study". The first three lessons should have helped the
student understand simple conversation involving names, personal
pronouns and a few verbs.

This lesson also introduces the student to some more conversation.
The main theme of the conversation is the Seasons and a description
of nature in the northern part of India. The cultural events that
take place down in the South also figure in the conversation.

Before you proceed to the lessons, it will be a good idea to give
yourself a small test or examination. We have provided one such test
for you A short exam. You can judge your own
progress with the lessons. If you would like Samskritapriah to judge
you, you are welcome to send a request by email to rkk@shiva.iitm.ernet.in
in response to which you will receive a set of questions, which may be
answered and the answers sent back to Samskritapriyah. At this time,
the exam will involve questions which require answers in English only.
If you have become familiar with the IITM software, you might even
ask for an exam that requires answers in Sanskrit which may be
prepared using the editor.

Ravi and Soma

Srinagar

Amarnath

Grammar

Directions and positions

Indeclinables

Exercise-1

Exercise-2

Exercise-3

Niruktam

Glossary

Numbers and how to express them

Summary of the lesson

Viewing the lesson using xdvng fonts

If you are able to view Devanagari text in your browser, using
the xdvng fonts, you may want to use the link below. The lessons
will be recieved by your browser in html format as opposed to
an image format thus permitting quicker downloading from our
server here.

View lessons using xdvng fonts