शिवसूत्राणि

शिवसूत्राणि

In response to my article on Morphological Thoughts and अष्टाध्यायी, one दक्षा-महोदया enquired with me whether I have any write-up on माहेश्वरसूत्राणि. I thank दक्षा-महोदया for motivating this write-up.

The title above has the word शिवसूत्राणि. Obviously these are different names.

Some people contend that they should be called only माहेश्वरसूत्राणि because they are said to have been composed by a grammarian by the name महेश्वर.

There is another anecdote which contends that the सूत्र-s were realized by सनकादि ऋषि-s, when they were blessed by शिव by sounding his ढक्का/डमरू in (9+5) 14 patterns. This is so said in a श्लोक

नृत्तावसाने नटराजराजः ननाद ढक्कां नवपञ्चवारम् |

उद्धर्तुकामः सनकादिसिद्धानेतद्विमर्शे शिवसूत्रजालम् ||

Anyway, these are 14 सूत्र-s –

(1) अ इ उ ण् (2) ऋ ऌ क् (3) ए ओ ङ् (4) ऐ औ च् (5) ह य व र ट् (6) ल ण् (7) ञ म ङ ण न म् (8) झ भ ञ् (9) घ ढ ध ष् (10) ज ब ग ड द श् (11) ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् (12) क प य् (13) श ष स र् (14) ह ल् ॥

It be noted that every सूत्रम् ends with a consonant. That consonant is to be understood to be only the end-marker of the सूत्रम्. Leaving out the end markers, we can see that there are 43 elements (listed below in groups of 5 to make counting easy) –

अ इ उ ऋ ऌ

ए ओ ऐ औ ह

य व र ल ञ

म ङ ण न झ

भ घ ढ ध ज

ब ग ड द ख

फ छ ठ थ च

ट त क प श

ष स ह

This in a way is देवनागरी alphabet वर्णमाला. But the order is different from the way one learns it in schools or is followed in dictionaries. Also the letter ह is repeated. Omitting the repetition, we have 42 letters. Of these अ इ उ ऋ ऌ ए ओ ऐ औ these 9 are vowels. Rest 33 are consonants.

It becomes good to reorganize the सूत्र-s as

• अ इ उ ण् । ऋ ऌ क् । ए ओ ङ् । ऐ औ च् । – Note, these are all vowels.
• ह य व र ट् । ल ण् । – These are called as अन्तस्थ-s or half-vowels.
• ञ म ङ ण न म् । – These are all nasals.
• झ भ ञ् । घ ढ ध ष् । – These are महाप्राणमृदुव्यञ्जनानि stressed soft consonants
• ज ब ग ड द श् । – These are अल्पप्राणमृदुव्यञ्जनानि unstressed soft consonants
• ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् । क प य् । – These are कठोरव्यञ्जनानि harsh consonants
• श ष स र् । – These are ऊष्मव्यञ्जनानि
• ह ल् ॥ – Not to be counted, since it is a repeat ह.