[Advaita-l] Svarita TP Rules

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Naresh Cuntoor <nareshpc at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is an interesting discussion. I am glad this is continuing here
> on the list rather than in private.
>
> If I can interject a couple of questions --
>
> What are hrasva and dIrgha svaritas? It would be good if someone can
> give an example to illustrate the two. Is it simply a hrasva or dIrgha
> svara with svarita intonation?
>
> I was taught that the elongation in svAhA(A)   is a pluta (assuming
> that this was intended as a double vertical bar in print).

pluta has no connection with the accenting. pluta refers to duration
of the sound, in the case of pluta refers specifically to the svaras
a, i and u (svara is the technical term for a vowel in the TP and not
to be confused with svara used for accents in common parlance).
svarita is an accent - or the tone: high, low ,medium etc.

Please see 1.3 and 1.4 and also 1.1.35-1.38

dve-dve savarNe hrasva-dIrghe(1.3) - The pair of two short and long
vowels are similar
na plutapUrvam (1.4) - Not when a protracted vowel precedes.
dvistAvAn dIrghaH (1.34) - dIrgha is twice as large
triH plutaH (1.35) plutaH is thrice (as long)

In short, the hrasva is one unit in time duration, dIrgha is two
units, and pluta is 3 units . The example is agna(3) ityAha (6.5.8)
quoting the tribhAshyaratna by Whitney.

The technical definition of pluta in terms of time units by the TP is
interesting, but has quite no connection to chanting as practiced now.
This will be treated in a follow-up email.

A vya~njana (i.e., a pure consonant) is half a unit long as specified
by hrasva-ardha-kAlaM vya~njanaM (1.37) - The vya~njana (consonant) is
half the time of a short (vowel).

The hrasva and dIrgha svaritas are not really technical terms found in
the TP. This distinction is unknown to, or not specified at any rate,
by the TP. These refer to the 1 upward stroke and two upward strokes
found in some modern texts respectively.

Rama