Virtual Vinodh

|| अकारो मुखः सर्वधर्माणां आद्यनुत्पन्नत्वात्  ||

|| அகாரோ முக²​: ஸர்வத⁴ர்மாணாம்ʼ ஆத்³யநுத்பந்நத்வாத் || 

|| 'a' is the door to all Dharmas, for they are all originally unproduced  ||

Vijayadashami is usually a very special day to start, any related to Vidya. It is very auspicious to start Akshara Abhyasa [अक्षर अभ्यास அக்ஷர அப்⁴யாஸ ] at this day. Traditionally, Children are made to write the letter "அ अ", and start their education. 

So, in this auspicious day of Vijayadashami, lets start our lessons on Grantha Lipi. :-)

We'll start our lesson with the Vowels a.k.a Svara-s. [ स्वरा: ஸ்வரா: - ஸ்வரங்கள் ]

Sanskrit has 14 Svara-s and 2 Ubhayākṣara-s [உப⁴யாக்ஷர उभयाक्षर  ] that go along with the Svara-s.

The 14 Svara-s in order are:

 a அ अ

ā ஆ आ

i இ इ

ī ஈ ई 

u உ उ

ū ஊ ऊ

ருʼ ṛ ऋ

ரூʼ ṝ ॠ 

லுʼ ḷ ऌ 

லூʼ ḹ ॡ

e ஏ ए

ai ஐ ऐ

o ஓ ओ

au ஔ औ

As you would have noted, some letters are same as that in Tamil and some are similar to that of Tamil. Lets sum up the similar letters:

Same letters as in Tamil:

Letters similar to that in Tamil:

Therefore, you would need to remember, only the following distinct forms.

The other letters are only used very rarely, learn them at your own pace :-)

Pronunciation of Letters

I want to specifically write about the pronunciation of the following 4 letters. The other letters have the same pronunciation as in Tamil.

 - Must be pronounced similar to the 'ரு’ in கி’ரு’ஷ்ணன்.

           Approximately, it has a pronunciation between /ri/ and /ru/

 - It is the longer counterpart of the above letter.

 - Similar to the pronunciation of  , but with an /l/ sound instead of /r/.

             It is highly erroneous to pronounce it as /lri/ as some people do.

 - The longer variant of the above letter

I end the lesson with this. Next week, we can see about the Ubhayākṣara-s in detail.

Wouldn't it be fair, to end the lesson without home work :-P. Try identifying the Akshara-s in the below jumbled text.

Download the lesson as PDF