Sanskrit for Absolute Beginners - Lesson 2: Consonants 1/3

 Sairam, welcome once again!

Hope you are doing your homeworks...please do them regularly...

Today's lesson is on consonants. What we need to know is that consonants in sanskrit are split very logically based on which part of the mouth is used to vocalise the sounds.

Now you don't need to memorise which sound comes from where, it will become second nature soon. What we do need to memorise firstly (there is a lot of memorisation ahead!) is:

क च  ट  त  प
ka ca ṭa ta pa

[Note: a letter with a dot underneath it in IAST, means tongue will be rolled back to say it. Not to worry we will go through this later.]

Basically the above is a mnemonic for almost all the consonants in sanskrit. Each of the above 5 letters (क ka, च  ca, ट ṭa, त ta प pa) is said in a different place in the mouth and has a group of letters that are similar to it. eg: ka is somewhere in the throat area; and pa is in the lips. 

Now, at each place in the vocal apparatus, we can vocalise 5 similar letters. We will go through the ka-group (ka-varga) and the ca-group (ca-varga) today. 

[Note: 'ca' in IAST is said like you say the word, 'change']

क/ka-varga or ka-group of letters

क ka; ख kha; ग ga; घ gha; ङ ṅa

Now all of these 5 are said in the EXACT same place in your mouth. 

Now how to say them? Please watch the following video from 3.16 to 4.20 and see how each of these letters are written and pronounced. 

To write these ka-group here is a nice guide from the 30-days sanskrit book:

च/ca-varga or ca-group of letters

च ca; छ cha; ज ja; झ jha; ञ ña

All of these 5 are said in the EXACT same place in your mouth. 

Now watch the above video from 4.20 to 5.12 to see how to pronounce these 5 letters.

You would have noticed that the 5th letter is a nasal in each varga. 

Yes thats right, but the key is: pronounce them in the same place as the other letters in that varga. 

So, ङ ṅa is said in the throat (like you say: sing). But ञ ña is said in the palate (like: inch). To say ञ ña on its own, we often say it with a 'y' sound: 'nya'. But the 'y' should be very subtle (its only to help us say it - its not necessary to say it with the 'y' sound though).

Again from the 30-day SKT book:

Writing practice

Now please watch this video until 4.46 to see how these are written:

This much is enough for today. Just get a hang of recognising these syllables when you see them and being able to pronounce them correctly as well. Wrong pronunciation can do a lot of damage in Sanskrit/Indic languages. 

Eg: bhai means brother but bai means mother in some indian languages!

Homework

So, just need you to do the following from hereon:
1. Write each vowel 10 times and say it as you write it

2. Write the ka-varga and ca-varga consonants 10 times each and say them as you write.

Here is my writing for comparison, Its not beautiful i know i know lol. But it does the job lol:

Next lesson will be to do a few more vargas of consonants. 

Once we have pronunciation down pat, we will start working on a few things so we can get basic sanskrit under our belt. 

Not to worry though, take your time, digest each information and the more homework you do, the easier it will become. We are trying to learn in 6-months what people usually take 3-4 years to learn in school! So, relax and enjoy!