Śikṣā — the science of sound

शिक्षा

Also written: shiksha vedanga · vedic phonetics · sanskrit pronunciation

Śikṣā is the first limb because everything else depends on it. In a tradition where the mantra's power lies in its exact sound, a mispronounced syllable is not a small error — the Brāhmaṇas record the story of a mantra whose accent was misplaced and produced the opposite of its intention.

What it analyses

Varṇa — the individual sound, classified by place of articulation (throat, palate, roof, teeth, lips) and by effort.
Svara — accent: udātta (raised), anudātta (lowered), svarita (moving). Vedic accent is meaning-bearing and is preserved in recitation to this day.
Mātrā — duration: short, long, and prolated (three counts).
Bala and sāma — force and evenness of utterance.
Santāna — the joining of sounds, which becomes sandhi in grammar.

The classification of consonants by place and manner of articulation — velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial, each with unvoiced, voiced, aspirated and nasal — is the arrangement of the Sanskrit alphabet itself. It is a phonetic table, not an arbitrary order, and it predates comparable Western analysis by more than two thousand years.

Śikṣā — the science of sound

What it analyses

The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma

Śruti — that which was heard

Smṛti — that which was remembered

Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams

The four Vedas

Ṛgveda