''Shiksha'' (, ) is a Sanskrit word, which means "instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill".
[Sir Monier Monier-Williams]
A DkSanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages, Oxford University Press (Reprinted: Motilal Banarsidass), , page 1070 It also refers to one of the six
Vedangas, or limbs of Vedic studies, on
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
and
phonology
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...
in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
.
[
''Shiksha'' is the field of Vedic study of sound, focussing on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, accent, quantity, stress, melody and rules of euphonic combination of words during a Vedic recitation.] Each ancient Vedic school developed this field of ''Vedanga'', and the oldest surviving phonetic textbooks are the '' Pratishakyas''. The ''Paniniya-Shiksha'' and ''Naradiya-Shiksha'' are examples of extant ancient manuscripts of this field of Vedic studies.
''Shiksha'' is the oldest and the first auxiliary discipline to the Vedas
FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...
, maintained since the Vedic era. It aims at construction of sound and language for synthesis of ideas, in contrast to grammarians who developed rules for language deconstruction and understanding of ideas. This field helped preserve the Vedas and the Upanishads as the canons of Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
since the ancient times, and shared by various Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
traditions.
Etymology
''Shiksha'' literally means "instruction, lesson, study, knowledge, learning, study of skill, training in an art".[ It also refers to one of the six Vedangas, which studies sound, Sanskrit phonetics, laws of euphonic combination (''sandhi''), and the science of making language pleasant and understood without mistakes.][ ''Shiksha'' as a supplemental branch of the ]Vedas
FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...
, included teaching proper articulation and pronunciation of Vedic texts.[James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shiksha" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen Publishing, , page 629] It was one of six fields of supplemental studies, others being grammar (Vyakarana), prosody (Chandas), ritual (Kalpa), etymology (Nirukta) and astrology (Jyotisha, calculating favorable time for rituals).[
The roots of ''Shiksha'' can be traced to the ]Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
which dedicates two hymns 10.125 and 10.71 to revere sound as a goddess, and links the development of thought to the development of speech. The mid 1st-millennium BCE text Taittiriya Upanishad contains one of the earliest description of ''Shiksha'' as follows,
Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus date the Shiksha text of the Taittiriya Vedic school to be from 600 BCE at the latest. Texts such as this established, among other things, a rational order of the Sanskrit alphabet, state Wilke and Moebus. Other texts, such as ''Vyasa-Siksa'' of the Krishna Yajurveda, were composed later.
The ancient Vedic schools developed major treatises analyzing sound, vowels and consonants, rules of combination and pronunciation to assist clear understanding, to avoid mistakes and for resonance (pleasing to the listener). These texts include ''Samhita-pathas'' and ''Pada-pathas'', and partially or fully surviving manuscripts include ''Paniniya Shiksha'', ''Naradiya Shiksha'', ''Bharadvaja Shiksha'', ''Yajnavalkya Shiksha'', ''Vasishthi Shiksha'', ''Parashari Shiksha'', ''Katyayani Shiksha'' and ''Manduki Shiksha''.
History
''Shiksha'', states Hartmut Scharfe, was the first branch of linguistics to develop as an independent Vedic field of study among the Vedangas. This is likely because Vedas were transmitted from one generation to the next by oral tradition, and the preservation and the techniques of preservation depended on phonetics, states Scharfe.
The earliest Brahmanas
The Brahmanas (; Sanskrit: , International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Brāhmaṇam'') are Vedas, Vedic śruti works attached to the Samhitas (hymns and mantras) of the Rigveda, Rig, Samaveda, Sama, Yajurveda, Yajur, and Athar ...
– a layer of text within the Vedas
FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...
, include some terms of art in the Vedic phonetics, such as ''Varna'' and ''Avasana''. The ''Shiksha'' field was likely well developed by the time Aranyaka
The ''Aranyakas'' (; ; IAST: ') are a part of the ancient Indian Vedas concerned with the meaning of ritual sacrifice, composed in about 700 BC. They typically represent the later sections of the Vedas, and are one of many layers of Vedic text ...
s and Upanishads layer of the Vedas were being composed. The alphabet had been categorized by this time, into vowels (''svara''), stops (''sparsha''), semivowels (''antastha'') and spirants (''ushman''). The field was fundamental to the ancient study of linguistics, and it developed as an interest and inquiry into sounds rather than letters. ''Shiksha'', as described in these ancient texts, had six chapters – ''varna'' (sound), ''svara'' (accent), ''matra'' (quantity), ''bala'' (strength, articulation), ''saman''(recital) and ''samtana'' (connection between preceding and following sounds).
The insights from this field, states Scharfe, "without doubt was applied by Vedic scholars to the art of writing". It also impacted the development of Indic scripts and evolution of language in countries that sought Indian texts or were influenced by Indian religions. According to Scharfe, and other scholars, the insights developed in this field, over time, likely also influenced phonetic scripts in parts of East Asia, as well as Arabic grammarian Khalil in 8th-century CE.
Discussion
The ''Shiksha'' field of Vedic studies arranged the Sanskrit alphabet in a rational order, state Wilke and Moebus, each mapped to the anatomical nature of human sounds, from the back to the front – throat (at the very back), palate, palatal ridge, teeth and lips. The letters of the Sanskrit alphabet were further organized by the Vedic scholars into a magic square, making symmetrical and resonant alternate readings of the letters possible, such as top to bottom in addition to left to right. Further, the ''Shiksha'' scholars added ''Mudra'' (hand signs) to go with each sound, thereby providing a visual confirmation and an alternate means to check the reading integrity by the audience, in addition to the audible means.
These Mudras continue to be part of the classical Indian dance tradition. This interplay of the gesture and sound in Sanskrit recital, state Wilke and Moebus, is similar to the gesture of a conductor and the sound produced by music players in any classical orchestra. In Sanskrit, the posture of the performer is an added dimension to those of pronunciation and gesture, together these empowered muscular memory with acoustic memory in the Hindu tradition of remembering and transmitting Sanskrit texts from one generation to the next, state Wilke and Moebus.
The methodical phonetic procedure developed by ''Shiksha'' helped preserve the Vedas without the slightest variants in the most faithful way possible. It made the Vedas and embedded Principal Upanishads the canonical scriptures of Hinduism. The rules and symmetric of Siksa helped the student to master enormous volumes of knowledge, and use the embedded codes and rules to self check his memory.
However, state Wilke and Moebus, the Shiksha methodology has been not just highly technical, it has strong aesthetic "sensuous, emotive" dimension, which foster thinking and intellectual skills in a participatory fashion. The reciter's mind and body are engaged, making language and sound as an emotional performance. The study of phonetics functioned to transform a Vedic text, which traditionally was composed as language-music, into a musical performance. Individual sounds in the Sanskrit have independent personalities, and the reciter helps develop their character and their timbre, state Wilke and Moebus. Naradiya Siksa, a phonetics treatise on the Sama Veda explains this aspects of phonology with various similes, such as,
Pratishakhyas
Pratisakhyas are the oldest ''Shiksha'' textbooks of each branch of the Vedas. Later Shiksha texts are more specialized and systematic, and often titled with suffix "Shiksha", such as the Naradiya-Shiksha, Vyasa-Shiksha, Pari-Shiksha and Sarvasammata-Shiksha.
The Pratishakhyas, which evolved from the more ancient Vedic Texts padapathas (') around 800 BCE, deal with the manner in which the Vedas are to be enunciated. There are separate Pratishakhyas for each Veda. They complement the books called Shiksha written by various authorities. Several Pratishakhyas have survived into the modern era, and these texts refine the structure of sound at different levels of nuance, some adding many more letters to the basic set in the Sanskrit alphabet:
* Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
-Pratishakya: 47 letters[
* Shukla Yajurveda-Pratishakhya: 65 letters][
* Taittiriya (Krishna Yajurveda) Pratishakhya: 52 letters][
* ]Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda or Atharva Veda (, , from ''wikt:अथर्वन्, अथर्वन्'', "priest" and ''wikt:वेद, वेद'', "knowledge") or is the "knowledge storehouse of ''wikt:अथर्वन्, atharvans'', the proced ...
-Pratishakhya (Shaunakiya shakha)
* Samaveda-Pratishakhya (Rig-tantra): 57 letters (Pushpasutra is the second Pratishakhya of Samaveda)
* Paniniya-Shiksha: 63 or 64 letters[
The Shiksha Texts and the Pratishakhyas led to great clarity in understanding the surface structure of language. For clarity of pronunciation, they broke up the large Vedic compounds into word stems, prefixes, and suffixes. Certain styles of recitation ('), such as the '','' involved switching syllables, repeating the last word of a line at the beginning of the next, and other permutations. In the process, a considerable amount of morphology is discussed, particularly regarding the combination of sequential sounds, which leads to the modalities of sandhi. The Samaveda Pratishakhya, one of the earliest, organizes the ]stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
sounds into a 5x5 ''varga'' or square:
The alphabet is designed such that the difference between sounds is preserved whether you recite it horizontally or vertically. It was extended and completed with fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s and sibilant
Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...
s, semi-vowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y' ...
s, and vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s, and was eventually codified into the Brahmi alphabet, which is one of the most systematic sound-to-writing mappings. Scholar Frits Staal has commented, "Like Mendelejev’s Periodic System of Elements, the varga system was the result of centuries of analysis. In the course of that development the basic concepts of phonology were discovered and defined.
The Varga system and the Pratishakshyas, contributions of the Shiksha texts, are elaborate systems which deal with the generation and classification of sound.
Other Shiksha texts
In addition, several Shiksha texts exist, most of them in metrical verse form but a few in sutra form. The following list contains some of these surviving texts: Amoghanandini Shiksha, Apisali Shiksha (in sutra form), Aranya Shiksha, Atreya Shiksha, Avasananirnyaya Shiksha, Bharadvaja Shiksha, Chandra Shiksha of Chandragomin (sutra form), Charayaniya Shiksha, Galadrka Shiksha, Kalanirnya Shiksha, Katyayani Shiksha, Kaundinya Shiksha, Keshavi Shiksha, Kramakarika Shiksha, Kramasandhaana Shiksha, Laghumoghanandini Shiksha, Lakshmikanta Shiksha, Lomashi Shiksha, Madhyandina Shiksha, Mandavya Shiksha, Mallasharmakrta Shiksha, Manasvaara Shiksha, Manduki Shiksha, Naradiya Shiksha, Paniniya Shiksha (versified), Paniniya Shiksha (in sutra form), Paniniya Shiksha (with accents), Parashari Shiksha, Padyaatmika Keshavi Shiksha, Pari Shiksha, Pratishakhyapradipa Shiksha, Sarvasammata Shiksha, Shaishiriya Shiksha, Shamaana Shiksha, Shambhu Shiksha, Shodashashloki Shiksha, Shikshasamgraha, Siddhanta Shiksha, Svaraankusha Shiksha, Svarashtaka Shiksha, Svaravyanjana Shiksha, Vasishtha Shiksha, Varnaratnapradipa Shiksha, Vyaali Shiksha, Vyasa Shiksha, Yajnavalkya Shiksha
Although many of these Shiksha texts are attached to specific Vedic schools, others are late texts.
Sound and alphabet
Traditionally syllables
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
(not letters) in Sanskrit are called ''Akshara'', meaning "imperishable (entity)": "atoms" of speech, as it were. These aksharas are classified mainly into two types:[" Siddhanta Kaumudi" by Bhattoji Diksita and " Laghu Siddhanta Kaumudi", by Varadaraja.]
* Svara ( pratyahara ''ach''): Vowel
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
* Vyanjana (pratyahara ''hal''): Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
''Svara aksharas'' are also known as ''prana akshara''; i.e., they are main sounds in speech, without which speech is not possible. Pāṇini
(; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE.
The historical facts of his life ar ...
referred to ''svara'' as ''ac pratyahara''. Later they became known as ''ac Akshara''.
''Vyanjana'' means embellishment, i.e., consonants are used as embellishment in order to yield sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels a ...
vowels. They are also known as ''Prani akshara''; that is, they are like a body to
which life (''svara'') is added. Pāṇini's name for ''vyanjana'' was ''Hal Pratyahara'', which were later referred to as ''Hal akshara''.
''Vyanjana aksharas'' are divided into three types:
* Sparśa: Stop
* Antastha: Approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do prod ...
* Uṣman: Sibilant
Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...
Sparsa aksharas include syllables from ''ka'' to ''ma''; they are 25 in number. Antastha aksharas include syllables ''ya'', ''ra'', ''la'' and ''va''. Usman aksharas include ''śa'', ''ṣa'', ''sa'' and ''ha''.
Vowels
Each vowel can be classified into three types based on the duration of pronunciation ('' morae''):
* Hrasva: Short vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many languages do not ...
, Eka-mātra
* Dīrgha: Long vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many languages do not d ...
, Dvi-mātra
* : Prolonged vowel, Tri-mātra ( )
We see that each vowel can be pronounced in three ways according to the duration of articulation.
The unit of time is a ''mātra'', which is approximately 0.2 seconds. It is approximately 0.2 seconds because 1 prana (1 respiration) is 10 long syllables or approximately 4 seconds and a long syllable is counted as two morae (mātra),[ Sanskrit prosody#Nomenclature] thus 4÷(10×2) = 0.2.
Each vowel can be further classified into two types based on the manner of pronunciation:
: Mukha: Oral (open)
: Nāsika: Nasal (all vowels are considered phonemically oral)
Each vowel can also be classified into three types, that is, pronounced in three ways, based on accent of articulation. This feature was lost in Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...
, but used in reciting Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...
and Upanishadic hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...
s and mantras.
: Udātta: high pitch
: Anudātta: low pitch
: Svarita: descending pitch (usually follows high pitch)
Articulation
Generally, in articulatory phonetics
The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech. Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological struc ...
, the place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...
(or ''point of articulation'') of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active (moving) articulator (typically some part of the tongue) and a passive (stationary) articulator (typically some part of the roof of the mouth).
But according to Indian linguistic tradition, there are five ''passive'' places of articulation:
: : Velar
: Tālavya: Palatal
: Mūrdhanya: Retroflex
A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...
: Dantya : Dental
: Ōṣṭhya : Labial
Apart from that, other articulations are combinations of the above five places:
: Dant'oṣṭhya: Labio-dental
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants Place of articulation, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth, such as and . In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written .
Labio ...
(E.g.: v)
: Kanthatālavya: e.g.: Diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
e
: Kaṇṭhōṣṭhya: labial-velar (E.g.: Diphthong o)
There are three ''active'' places of articulation:
: Jihvāmūla: tongue root, for velar
: Jihvāmadhya: tongue body, for palatal
: Jihvāgra: tip of tongue, for cerebral and dental
: : lower lip, for labial
Effort (or manner) of articulation () is of two types for consonants,
: Bāhya Prayatna: External effort
:: : Plosive
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
:: : Approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do prod ...
:: : Fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
: Abhyantara Prayatna: Internal effort
:: Alpaprāṇa: Unaspirated
:: Mahāprāṇa: Aspirated
:: Śvāsa: Unvoiced
:: Nāda: Voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refe ...
Articulation of consonants
Articulation of consonants will be a logical combination of components in the two prayatnas. The below table gives a view upon articulation of consonants.
See also
* Shiva Sutra
* Nandinagari
* Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*, William Whitney (1871)
External links
Taittiriya-Pratisakhya
WD Whitney, Journal of the American Oriental Society
{{Hindudharma
Vedangas
Hindu texts
Phonetics
History of linguistics
Language and mysticism