The aspiration of the aspirated consonants should be heard distinctly. Thus th and ph must never be pronounced as in English thin and telephone, but as in hothouse and upheaval. The same for kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, dh, bh. G is sounded as in get, and ṅ as n in king; c is similar to ch in church, and j is pronounced as in join. Ñ sounds like n in punch, but the combination jñ may be pronounced somewhat like dny or gny. The difference between the retroflex t, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ and the dentals t, th, d, dh, n is that the former set is pronounced with the tongue turned rather back along the palate, while the latter is produced by bringing the tip of the tongue against the very edge of the front teeth. S sounds like s in sin, ṣ like sh in shun, while ś is something midway between the two.
Ḥ is in India generally pronounced as a hard h followed by a faint echo of the preceding vowel, while ṃ is a nasalization of the preceding vowel, rather in the way some French vowel sounds are nasalized. The stress is laid ou a long penultimate (Kālidása), on the antepenultimate when followed by a short syllable (Himálaya, Gótama), and on the fourth from the end when two short syllables follow (kárayati). A syllable is long if it contains a long vowel (ā, ī, ū, e, o, but also ai and au), or a vowel followed by more than one consonant. It should be noted that the aspirated consonants are considered single consonants in the Sanskrit alphabet. In a few words which are typically Vedic the musical accent called udātta has been marked. This stress, which consisted in a higher pitch of the voice, has disappeared in Classical Sanskrit.
Glossary
Abhimanyu
Son of Arjuna and Subhadr
ā
; marries Uttar
ā
Aciravat
ī
River in the Bihar region
adharma
Disorder, illegality, illegitimacy, violation of
dharma
adhvaryu
Chief priest of proceedings, one of four basic kinds of officiants in the sacrifice of the
soma
; the others are the
hotṛ
, the
udgātr
, and the
brahmān
The priest who, more than any other, performs the liturgical actions; he moves around continually, handles the sacrificial implements, cooks the oblations, tends the fire. “The
adhvaryu
is the eye of the sacrifice” (
Bṛhad Āranyaka Upaniṣad
, 3.1.4)
Ā
ḍ
i
A demon hostile to
Ś
iva
Aditi
Boundless, She who loosens bonds; mother of the
Ā
dityas through her union with Ka
ś
yapa
Ā
dityas
The twelve sons of Aditi and Ka
ś
yapa: Vi
ṣ
ṇ
u, Indra, Vivasvat, Mitra, Varu
ṇ
a, P
ū
ṣ
an, Tva
ṣ
ṭ
ṛ
, Bhaga, Aryaman, Dh
ā
t
ṛ
, Savit
ṛ
, A
ṃ
ś
a
Agastya
A
ṛṣi
born with Vasi
ṣ
ṭ
ha from the bowl where Mitra’s and Varu
ṇ
a’s sperm fell; sometimes considered one of the Saptar
ṣ
is, husband of Lop
ā
mudr
ā
Age of the Losing
Throw
Kaliyuga
Agni
Fire
agnīdh
He who lights the fire; an officiant who tends the fire
agnihotra
Offering to the fire; the simplest and most important of the solemn rites. The head of every family of the three upper castes must offer this sacrifice all his life, morning and evening, shortly before the rising of the sun or the appearance of the first star
agre
Forward; Agni’s secret name
Ahaly
ā
Unplowable One; wife of the
ṛṣi
Gotama
aham
I
āhavanīya
Fire into which one pours the offering; one of the three sacrificial fires, together with the
gārhapatya
, “belonging to the sacrificer,” a domestic fire, and the
dakṣiṇāgni
, “fire of the south.” The
āhavanīya
is lit, with a flame taken from the
gārhapatya
ahiṃsā
Not to wound; nonviolence toward living beings. A lizard defined it as “the supreme law of all creatures that breathe” (
Mahābhārata
, 1.11.12)
Air
ā
vata
Born of the ocean: a white elephant ridden by Indra
Ajita Ke
ś
akambalin
Philosopher who lived at the time of the Buddha
Ak
ū
p
ā
ra
Cosmic turtle, immersed in the waters
Alakanand
ā
River that rises in the Him
ā
laya and flows into the Ganges
Albertine
A character in Proust’s
Recherche
Aldebaran
A star in the Taurus coustellation; it corresponds to Rohin
ī
All-gods
Vi
ś
ve Devas
amāgadho
māgadhavākyah
Man-not-from-the-Magadha called man-from-the-Magadha
Amar
ā
vat
ī
Indra’s celestial city
Amb
ā
A princess of K
ā
ś
ī
, carried off by Bh
ī
ṣ
ma with her sisters, Ambik
ā
and Amb
ā
lik
ā
amba
Mother
Amb
ā
lik
ā
A princess of K
ā
ś
ī
, marries Vicitrav
ī
rya, mother of P
ā
ṇ
ḍ