A HIGHER SANSKRT GRAMMAR. CHAPTER I. THE ALPHABET. I. Sanskṛt or the refined language, is the language of Devas or gods, and the alphabet in which it is written is called Devanagarî, or that employed in the cities of gods. (a) The correct name for the Sanskṛt alphabet is Daivanagari sometimes abbreviated into Nàgari. Perhaps in the word Devanagari we have a history of the times when the Aryans entered and settled in Northern India. The Aryans who were much fairer in colour than the aborigines of India are the Devas referred to in the name Devanagari (from fa to shine, those of a brilliant complexion); and Nagari means the Aryan settlements within the precincts of which the sacred language was spoken. (b) The Sanskṛt language is generally written in different parts of the country, in that alphabet which is used for the Vernacular (. g. Bengáli, Marathi &c.). That character, however, in which the earliest monuments are written (such as the inscriptions containing the edicts of As'oka) and which is employed throughout Upper India is generally considered to be the real Devanagari, # संस्कृतं नाम देवी वागन्वाख्याता महर्षिभिः । Dandin. § 2. The Devanagarî alphabet consists of forty-two letters or varṇas, nine vowels or swaras, and thirty-three consonants or vyanjanas.* (a) These express nearly every gradation of sound, and every letter stands for a particular and invariable sound. Note: This explains why there are no names, as in Greek, for the different letters of the alphabet. Thus given by Pàgini: Vowels:-अइउण् | ऋ | एओङ | ऐभव | Consonants:- हयवरद् । लम् । ञमङगनम् | झभञ । घटधम् । जबगढ़ दन् । स्वफळठथचटतव | कपय् | दाषसर् | इल् | Each The alphabet, it will be seen, is divided into 14 sections by Panini, which are called S'ivasútrani, or the sutras revealed by S'iva. section ends with an indicatory letter called ' which is not to be counted among the letters of the alphabet. These "Its" serve an important purpose in Sanskṛt grammar as they enable the grammarians to express several letters, or grops of letters, in a very convenient and condensed form. For any letter, with the following a added to it, is not only expressive of itself but of all letters that intervene between it and this इ; eg अण् means अ, इ, उ; इक means इ, उ, ऋ, ऌ, &c. Similarly अल् means technically the whole alphabets, any vowel, and any consonant; a hard consonant, ज्ञश् a semivowel, यस् a soft consonant, खर् a soft unaspirate, a soft aspirate, &c. Each of these significant terws is technically called & ' प्रत्याहार.' a Since short vowels include the long and the protracted vowels (See § 3. a.) another is generally employed to mark a 3 The nine primary vowels consist of five simple rowels, viz.,,,, and, and four dipthongs, viz.,, ओ and औ (a) A vowel may be or short, for long, and ga or protracted, (also callei prolated by some) according to the tine required to pronounce it.* The Vowels are thus divid ed into (1) Short vowels अ &, इ i, उ u, ऋ, ऌ ]; ३ । ३, ए ३ ९ ४, ऐ ३ ai 3, ओ ३ o 3, and औ ३ au 3. N. B. As the Pluta or protracted vowels are not commonly to be met with in classical Sanskṛt, the vowels are usually given as thirteen, represented by the thirteen signs given above unler (1) and ( 2 ). (b) Each of these vowels may be again of two kinds, अनुनासिक or nasalised, and अननुनासिक or without a nasal sound t (c) Vowels are also further discriminated into उदात्त acnte, अनुदात्त or grave, and स्वरित or circumflex. उदात्त is particular vowel: e. g. 37 means 3, 4 and arr, but a means ar only; so means and nothing else, । * shoìzeddga: | Pán. I. 2. 27. The crowing of the cock in the morning represents in its three stages these three kinds of vowels. The time required to pronounce a short vowel is called a mátrá. A long vowel has two màtrás and a pluta Vowel three. + मुखनासिकावचनोनुनासिकः | Pan. 1. 1. 8. that which proceeds from the upper part of the vocal organs, अनुदान्त that which proceeds from their lower part, while स्वरित arises out of a mixture of these two. But these are ignored in classical Sanskṛt. They are marked only in Vedic works; the Uda'tta is left unmarked; the Anuda'tta is marked with a horizontal line underneath; and the Svarita has a perpendicular stroke above it. E. 9. ;, &c. Rg. V. 61. 2. tumi a क्व ' वोऽश्वाः, रथानां न वे रे राः । &c. Rg. X. 78. 4. शतचक्रं यो ३ ह्यः &c. Rg. X. 145. 4. Thus there are eighteen different modifications of each of the vowels भ, इ, उ, ऋ, and twelve of ल, ए, ऐ, भो and भौ; for there is no long and the last four have not their corresponding short vowels. § 4. The consonants are divided into spars'a or mutes (those involving a complete closure or contact and not an approximate one of the organs of pronunciation), Antastha or intermediate (i. e. the Semivowels, ) and ùshman or sibilants. These are represented by thirty-three syllabic signs arranged as below: (a)mutes (1) कवर्ग or the group कु—क् k, स्व kh, ग् ४, घ् gh, पं, ( 2 ) चवर्ग or the group चुच् , छ ch, ज् j, झ jh, ञ, ( 3 ) टवर्ग or the group दु-द !, th, d dh, ṇ, (4) for the group - t, th, d, ध् dh, न् n. (5) or the group g-p, ph, b, bh m. * उच्चैरुदात्तः । नीचैरनुदात्तः । समाहारः स्वरितः । Pan. I. 2. 29. 31. These are also called the five classes designated as Kavarga, Chavarga, Tavarga, Tavarga and Pavarga respectively. (b) Semivowelsy, r,l, av, (e) Sibilants र् ल् s', sh, 1, (d) Sonant Aspirate-h. Besides these we have two more characters occurring in the Vela, viz. and (often substituted for and ; as for ईडे, मोडषे for मीदुबे, & 3 ) In Marathi ळ is generally substituted for the final of Sanskṛt words. 5. The first two letters of the five classes and the sibilants are called surds or hard consonants. The rest are called sonants or soft consonants. i. e. a dot placed above § 6. In addition to the characters given above there are in Sanskṛt two nasal sounds:-the one called Anuswara is denoted by the letter after which it is to be pronounced, e. g. the other, called Anunaʼsika, is denoted by i. e. a dot within a semicirele placed above the letter after which it is to be pronounced e. g. #. (a) And a sort of hard breathing known as Visarga (generally called Visarjanîya by Sanskt grammarians). It is denoted by the sign; i. e. two vertical dots placed after the letter after which it is to be pronounced. In pronunciation it is a harder aspirate than. The Visarga is not an original character but only a substitute for a finals or r. ( 6 ) Jihvàmuliya ( जिह्वामूलीय) and Upadhmániya ( उपध्मानीय ) are terms given to a sort of half Visarga, when pronounced before TU, and I, 5 respectively. It is written symbolically as |