Shiva Sutra

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The Shiva Sutras describe a phonemic notational system in the fourteen initial lines of the , the Sanskrit grammar by . The notational system introduces different clusters of phonemes that serve special roles in the morphology of Sanskrit, and are referred to throughout the text. Each cluster, called a pratyāhara ends with a dummy sound called an anubandha (the so called IT index), which acts as a symbolic referent for the list. Within the main text, these clusters, referred through the anubandha's, are related to various grammatical functions.

This type of initial notational verse is a standard structure in the sutra style, which focuses on creating short, mnemonic verses that encode complex rules. Often additional sounds may be added to the indices to make the overall string pronunciable.

For example, list 13, symbolized by r, refers to the three sibilants. List 4, marked by c, refers to the diphthong vowels ai and au.

To keep the list compact, naming one phoneme and one marker, indicates the list of all intervening phonemes, allowing the grammar to refer to classes of sounds by just one syllable. These syllables referring to lists of phonemes are called pratyāharas, and the sutras themselves are also known as pratyāhara-vidhāyaka-sutrāṇi (Sutras forming Pratyaharas).

For example, al refers to the list of all phonemes (since a is the first alphabet and l is the marker for the last. ac refers to all vowels, hal to all consonants and ñam to all nasals - the purpose of the a in hal etc. is to ease pronunciation.

In the main text, a rule reads: iko yNa aci (verse 6.1.77). The symbol ac here (as in the rest of the ) refers to all the vowels, and the ending vowel i makes it pronunciable. This rule deals with the sixth and seventh vibhaktis (karaka case markers), and specifies how the vowels, in these situations, are to be replaced by the suitable sounds like y.

History

Nrittāvasāne Natarājarājō nanādadhakkām navapanchavāram |
uddhartukāmah sanakādisiddhān etadvimarshe sivasūtrajālam ||

According to legend, these fourteen sutras were revealed to by Shiva, who then composed his grammar to be dependent on them. They are also called the Māheshvara Sutras, using an alternate name for Shiva. Legend also claims that these sounds spilled from Shiva 's damaru, or hand-drum, as he played and danced.

Shiva Sutras Text

The 14 sutras are (the IT sounds are at the end of each sutra, transcribed in boldface):

Text of the Sutras
IAST	Devanagari
1. a i u (simple vowels) 2. k (sonorant vowels) 3. e o 4. ai au c (diphthongs) 5. h y v r 6. l (voiced fricative + semi-vowels) 7. m (nasals) 8. jh bh ñ 9. gh dh (voiced aspirate stops) 10. ś (voiced unaspirated stops) 11. v 12. k p y (unvoiced stops) 13. r (sibilants) 14. h l (voiced fricative, the only phoneme listed twice)	१. अ इ उ ण् \| २. ऋ ऌ क् \| ३. ए ओ ङ् \| ४. ऐ औ च् \| ५. ह य व र ट् \| ६. ल ण् \| ७. ञ म ङ ण न म् \| ८. झ भ ञ् \| ९. घ ढ ध ष् \| १०. ज ब ग ड द श् \| ११. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् \| १२. क प य् \| १३. श ष स र् \| १४. ह ल् \|

These 14 sutras encompass the phones of the Sanskrit language. The first 4 sutras cover all the vowels and the last 10 sutras include all the consonants. Again, all vowels and consonants of Sanskrit have been arranged in such a way in these sutras that they can be referred to without mentioning them separately.

Of the hundreds pratyaharas that could in principle be formed from these sutras, Panini has used 41 (with a 42nd introduced by later grammarians, ra={r,l}).

Note that some pratyaharas are ambiguous. For example, IT occurs twice in the list, which means that you can assign two different meanings to pratyahara a (including or excluding etc.); in fact, both of these meanings are being used in the grammar. On the other hand, pratyahara hal is always used in the meaning "all consonants" - Panini never uses pratyaharas to refer to sets consisting of a single phoneme.

Shiva Sutra

History

Shiva Sutras Text

See also