Shiksha (शिक्षा)

Shiksha (Samskrit: शिक्षा) means "instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill". Shiksha is a knowledge of pronunciation and accent, insufficiently expressed as phonetics. In this context it refers to one of the six Vedangas, or limbs of Vedic studies, others being Vyākaraṇam (Grammar), Chandas (Prosody), Niruktam (Semantics and Thesaurus), Jyotiṣam (Astrology) and Kalpa (Practice of Rites). It has an important place in the Vidyasthanas and hence study of this shastra is a prerequisite for Vyakarana.

Articulation of Sounds from Throat, Nose and Mouth Courtesy: Book "Sarwang" Published by Adivasi Lok Kala Evam Boli Vikas Academy, Madhya Pradesh Sanskriti Parishad

परिचयः ॥ Introduction

Shiksha is considered as the nose (घ्राणम् - ghrāṇam) of Vedapuruṣa (knowledge personified). Unlike other later day languages, pronunciation is of utmost importance in Samskrit. Different speech organs, places for different letters, the efforts, the accents, quantity, pitch, stress, melody, process of how letters are produced, the virtues and vices of pronunciation, the problem with mispronunciation etc. are discussed in this Vedanga.

Each ancient vaidika parampara which sustained over ages must have developed pronunciation and the earliest surviving texts which deal with some aspects of pronunciation are the Pratishakyas. The Paniniya-Shiksha and Naradiya-Siksa are examples of extant ancient manuscripts of this field of Vedic studies. One should learn Shiksha principles before studying the Vyakarana.

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.

There are thirty seven or so Shiksha compiled by different seers of Bharatvarsha. Phonetics (in Modern Linguistics) is a rough translation of Śikṣā. The latter deals with many issues related to pronunciation. The term Śikṣā literally means – the one that trains pronunciation etc. of letters.

व्युत्पत्तिः ॥ Etymology

The roots of Shiksha can be traced to Rigveda 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. Taittiriya Upanishad, in Shikshavalli, contains one of the earliest description of Shiksha as follows,

शीक्षां व्याख्यास्यामः। वर्णस्स्वरः। मात्रा बलम्। साम सन्तानः। इत्युक्तश्शीक्षाध्यायः ॥ (Tait. Upan. Shik. 2)

Now, we will clearly state about Shiksha (phonetics). There are six aspects to be discussed in Shiksha: letter, accent, short/long vowel etc, the efforts to be put in during pronunciation, pronouncing at medium pace and the sandhi (the change in the form of letters when uttered in quick succession) - this is called the chapter of Shiksha.

Shabdotpatti

The earliest Brahmanas – a layer of text within the Vedas, include some terms of art in the Vedic phonetics, such as Varna and Avasana. Panini shiksha describes the physiological process by which sound (or varnas here) is produced in the human being.

Varnas are the fundamental speech units and they are produced (वर्णोत्पत्तिः) by a complex process involving the antaranga or inner mind combined with air and articulating organs. Speech sounds are generated on the basis of the following

1. स्वरः ॥ Svara (Accent or Pitch)
2. मात्रा ॥ Matra (Quantity or time of utterance)
3. स्थानम् ॥ Sthana (Place of articulation)
4. प्रयत्नः ॥ Prayatna (Effort)
5. ॥ Anupradana (Sound material)

स्वरः ॥ Accent or Pitch

While difference in accent causes a difference in meaning in the vedic literature, accent is not given importance in classical samskrit literature. The अचः (acaḥ = vowels) are called स्वराः (svarāḥ) as they shine with 'svara' and being the 'dharma', udātta etc. are also called svarāḥ. Panini in his famous Ashtadhyayi defines svaras as follows

उच्चैरुदात्तः ॥ uccairudāttaḥ ॥ १-२-२९ ॥ If the vowel is pronounced in the upper parts, it is called udātta.

नीचैरनुदात्तः ॥ nīcairanudāttaḥ ॥ १-२-३0 ॥ If the vowel is pronounced in the lower parts, it is called anudātta.

समाहारः स्वरितः ॥ samāhāraḥ svaritaḥ ॥ १-२-३१ ॥ Svarita is the combination of udātta and anudātta. (Asht. 1.2.29-31)

मात्रा ॥ Matra

Following the time taken for pronunciation, the vowels (acaḥ = vowels) are named ह्रस्व (hrasva = short), दीर्घ (dīrgha = long) and प्लुत (pluta = longer). The time for these vowels is fixed by Yajnavalkya in his Shiksha

एकमात्रो भवेद्ध्रस्वः द्विमात्रो दीर्घ उच्यते। त्रिमात्रस्तु प्लुतो ज्ञेयः व्यञ्जनं त्वर्धमात्रकम् ॥ १३ ॥

ekamātro bhaveddhrasvaḥ dvimātro dīrgha ucyate । trimātrastu pluto jñeyaḥ vyañjanaṃ tvardhamātrikam ॥ 13 ॥

If the vowel is uttered in a single mātrā or the time taken for the fall of an eyelid, then it is called hrasva, if it is two mātras, then it is dīrgha and if takes three mātras, then it is pluta. A hal (consonant) has got half-a-mātrā time. 'a' (अ) is hrasva; ā (आ) is dīrgha; and 'a3' (अ३) is pluta. For hal, 'क् क्' (k k) takes one mātrā and for a single consonant, it is half-a-mātrā. Panini in his Ashtadhyayi gives a natural example to imitate the pronunciation of hrasva, dīrgha and pluta –

ऊकालोऽच् ह्रस्वदीर्घप्लुतः ॥ १-२-२७ ॥ ūkālo'c hrasvadīrghaplutaḥ ॥ 1-2-27 ॥     

A cock's sound has to be taken as an example of hrasva, dīrgha and pluta, i.e. the time taken by a cock to pronounce u, o and o3 (उ, ओ, ओ३) is the right time to follow.

The alphabet had been classified into vowels (svara), stops (sparsa), semivowels (antastha) and spirants (usman). 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).

Pratishakhyas

Pratisakhyas are the oldest Siksa textbooks of each branch of the Vedas.Template:Sfn Later Siksa texts are more specialized and systematic, and often titled with suffix "Siksa", such as the Naradiya-Siksa, Vyasa-Siksa, Pari-Siksa and Sarvasammata-Siksa.Template:Sfn

The Pratishakhyas, which evolved from the more ancient Vedic Texts padapathas (padapāṭha), 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-Pratishakya: 47 letters
• Shukla Yajurveda-Pratishakhya: 65 letters
• Taittiriya (Krishna Yajurveda) Pratishakhya: 52 letters
• Atharvaveda-Pratishakhya (Shaunakiya shakha)
• Samaveda-Pratishakhya (Rig-tantra): 57 letters (Pushpasutra is the second Pratishakhya of Samaveda)
• Paniniya-Siksa: 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 (pāṭha), such as the jaṭāpāṭha, 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 sounds into a 5x5 varga or square:

ka	kha	ga	gha	ṅa
ca	cha	ja	jha	ña
ṭa	ṭha	ḍa	ḍha	ṇa
ta	tha	da	dha	na
pa	pha	ba	bha	ma

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 fricatives and sibilants, semi-vowels, and vowels, 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 later day texts.

Sound and alphabet

Traditionally syllables (not letters) are called Akshara, meaning 'imperishable'. These aksharas are classified mainly into two types:

• Svara (pratyahara aC): Vowel
• Vyanjana (pratyahara haL): Consonant

Svara aksharas are also known as prana akshara; i.e., they are main sounds in speech, without which speech is not possible. Pāṇini 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 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:

• • Sparsa: Stop
  • Antastha: Approximant
  • Usman: Sibilant

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

Main article: Vedic accent

It was saidTemplate:Who that in Sanskrit a vowel can be pronounced in 18 ways (3×2×3), based on timing, manner, and accent of pronunciation.

Each vowel can be classified into three types based on the duration of pronunciation (morae):

• Hrasva: Short vowel, Eka-mātra
• Dīrgha: Long vowel, Dvi-mātra
• Pluta: Prolonged vowel, Tri-mātra (pluti)

We see that each vowel can be pronounced in three ways according to the duration of articulation. ×. The unit of time is a mātra (approx. 0.4 seconds).

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, but used in reciting Vedic and Upanishadic hymns and mantras.

Udātta: high pitch

Anudātta: low pitch

Svarita: descending pitch (usually follows high pitch)

Articulation

Generally, in articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (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:

Kaṇṭhya: Velar

Tālavya: Palatal

Mūrdhanya: Retroflex

Dantya : Dental

Ōṣṭhya : Labial

Apart from that, other articulations are combinations of the above five places:

Dant'oṣṭhya: Labio-dental (E.g.: v)

Kantatālavya: e.g.: Diphthong e

Kaṇṭōṣṭhya: 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

Adhōṣṭha: lower lip, for labial

Effort (or manner) of articulation (Uccāraṇa Prayatna) is of two types for consonants,

Bāhya Prayatna: External effort

Spṛṣṭa: Plosive

Īshat Spṛṣṭa: Approximant

Īshat Saṃvṛta: Fricative

Abhyantara Prayatna: Internal effort

Alpaprāna: Unaspirated

Mahāprāna: Aspirated

Śvāsa: Unvoiced

Nāda: Voiced

See also

• Shiva Sutra
• Nandinagari
• Devanagari

References

Bibliography

• Annette Wilke; Oliver Moebus (2011). Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-018159-3.
• Guy L. Beck (1995). Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1261-1.
• The Tâittirîya-Prâtiçâkhya: With Its Commentary, the Tribhâshyaratna at Google Books, William Whitney (1871)

External links

• Taittiriya-Pratisakhya, WD Whitney, Journal of the American Oriental Society