[Fwd: Sabda - Bhartrihari]

[Vidyasankar]

>If we look at the consonants, the last eight, namely:
>
>y  r  l v
>sh Sh s h
>
>seem to have a special place. It is interesting to note that

y r l v are not really consonants. They are what are called diphthongs, and
arise from combinations of vowels. You can't get k, c, T, t, p (varga-s)
from just vowel combinations, but

y = i + any vowel other than i,
v = u + any vowel other than u, etc.

In fact, all of this is captured succinctly in Panini's sUtra, iko yaN aci,
that we discussed a week or so ago.

Similarly, the full h can be related to the visarga, which is a plosive
expulsion of air at the end of a vowel sound.

S, sh and s are also derived from the visarga. That is why in sandhi
situations, the visarga gets converted to one of these, e.g. kaH + cana =
kaScana.

Therefore, there are no nasal sounds corresponding to these sounds, and it
is not necessary to artificially add them, by insisting upon a set of five
sounds in each varga.

Vidyasankar