Pratishakhyas
The Pratishakhyas, which evolved from the more ancient Vedic Texts padapathas (padapāṭha) between c. 3100-800 BCE, deal with the manner in which the Vedas are to be enunciated. There are separate Pratishakhyas for each Veda. They are a complement to the books called Shiksha written by various authorities.
Five Pratishakhyas are preserved:
- Rigveda-Pratishakya (Shakala shakha), attributed to Shaunaka
- Shukla Yajurveda-Pratishakhya
- Taittiriya (Black Yajurveda) Pratishakhya, ed. Whitney 1871
- Atharvaveda-Pratishakhya (Shaunakiya shakha)
- Shaunakiya Chaturaadhyaayika (Shaunakiya shakha)
The Shiksha Texts and the Pratishakhyas led to a great clarity in understanding the surface structure of language. For clarity of pronunciation, they propose breaking up the large Vedic compounds into stems, prefixes, and suffixes. Certain styles of recitation (pāṭha) such as the jaṭāpāṭha involved switching syllables, repeating the last word of a line at the beginning of the next, and other permutations. In the process, a considerable amount of morphology is discussed, particularly regarding the combination of sequential sounds, which leads to the modalities of sandhi. An even more important discovery recorded in the Pratishakhya texts, particularly the Samaveda Pratishakhya, which is claimed to be the earliest), is an organization of the stop consonant sounds into a 5x5 varga or square:
- ka kha ga gha ṅa
- ca cha ja jha ña
- ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa
- ta tha da dha na
- pa pha ba bha ma
in which difference between sounds is preserved whether you recite it horizontally or vertically. This was extended and completed with fricatives and sibilants, semi-vowels, and vowels, and was eventually codified into the Brahmi alphabet, which is one of the most systematic sound to writing mapping. A scholar has commented: Mendelejev's Periodic system of elements, the varga system was the result of centuries of analysis. In the course of that development, the basic concepts of phonology were discovered and defined.
The Varga system and the Pratishakshyas are contributions of the Shiksha texts. They are elaborate systems which deal with the generation and classification of sound. According to the old tradition, sound is generated when four conditions are satisfied: viz; a ground or base, an electromagnetic force, a gravitational force implying the existence of other nearby bodies or particles and space for the bodies to expand. The middle two parameters generate vibration in the bodies. Depending upon the magnitude of these parameters, there are 304 types of sounds, out of which 12 types are within human audible range. The lowest of these is called sphota and the highest is called mahaghanarava.
The Brāhmī script is named after the Vedic script. Shukla Yajurveda Pratishakhya (8-25) calls the letters of the alphabet as Brahma Rashi meaning Universal letter unit. From this, the name Brahmi originated for the script.
Read more about this topic: Shiksha