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Sanskrit (Saṃskṛt)

  • Living reference work entry
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Hinduism and Tribal Religions

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Indian Religions ((EIR))

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Introduction

Sanskrit, written in Devanagari meaning “city of gods” script, falls under alphasyllabary writing system where letters are written as a unit, consisting of consonant-vowel sequences. Unlike most of the European languages, there are no capital letters in Sanskrit – each letter represents one sound [6]. The alphabets are so organized that they are arranged according to the structure of the mouth, covering the area between glottis and lips. It is important that both the articulators – active and passive – are to be positioned in their designated places for the production of sounds so that the accuracy in pronunciation is to be maintained. In Sanskrit, alphabets are divided into two parts: the swara “vowels” and the vyanjana “consonants.” The literal meaning of vyanjana is decoration or adornment, while swara means accent, tone, and sound. The vowel sounds are [ə], [a:], [i], [i:], [u], [u:], [r], [r:], [l], [l:], [e:], [a:i], [o], [a:u], [aŋ], [ə~], and [əh] (Table 1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Humanities & Social Sciences – Languages & Literature, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi

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  1. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
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Correspondence to Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Anthropology, The University of North Texas Dept of Anthropology, Denton, Texas, USA

    Pankaj Jain

  2. The Graduate Theological Union , Berkeley, California, USA

    Rita Sherma

  3. Jamia Millia Islamia, Centre for the Study of Comparative Reli Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Madhu Khanna

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Dwivedi, A.V. (2018). Sanskrit (Saṃskṛt). In: Jain, P., Sherma, R., Khanna, M. (eds) Hinduism and Tribal Religions. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_508-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_508-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

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