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Shiva SutraThe Shiva Sutras (also Maheshvara Sutras) are the 14 sutras that form the basis of the Aṣṭādhyāyī, the Sanskrit grammar by Panini. According to legend, these sutras were revealed to Panini by Shiva, who then composed his grammar to be dependent on them. The purpose of the sutras is to give a list of all Sanskrit phonemes. But rather than listing just the phonemes, they are interspersed by meta-linguistic markers, the so-called "nasalized" or "IT sounds". By naming one phoneme and one marker, a list of all invervening phonemes is intended, allowing the grammar to refer to classes of sounds by just one syllable. These syllables referring to lists of phonemes are called pratyaharas, and the sutras themselves are also known as pratyahara-vidhayaka-sutrani (Sutras forming Pratyaharas). For example, a'l refers to the list of all phonemes, a'c refers to all vowels, ha'l to all consonants and a'm to all nasals. The 14 sutras are (the IT sounds are at the end of each sutra, transcribed in boldface): - 1. a i u ṇ (simple vowels)
- 2. ṛ ḷ k (sonant vowels)
- 3. e o ṅ, 4. ai au c (diphtongs)
- 5. h y v r ṭ, 6. l ṇ (voiced fricative + semi-vowels)
- 7. m ṅ ṇ n m (nasals)
- 8. jh bh , 9. gh ḍh dh ṣ (voiced aspirate stops)
- 10. j b g ḍ d ś (voiced unaspirated stops)
- 11. kh ph ch ṭh th ca ṭ t v, 12. k p y (unvoiced stops)
- 13. ś ṣ s r (sibilants)
- 14. h l (voiced fricative, only phoneme listed twice)
These 14 sutras encompass the alphabet of the sanskrit language. first 4 sutras cover all the vowels and last 10 sutras include all the consonants. Again, all vowels and consonants of sanskrit language have been arranged in such a way in these sutras that they can be referred to without mentioning them separately. Of the hundreds pratyaharas that could in principle be formed from these sutras, Panini has used 41 (with a 42nd introduced by later grammarians, ra'ṇ'={r,l}).
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