vyañjanāni

In the Last chapter, we discussed Swaras. Let's recap about them.

The First 4 Maheshwara Sutras explain the Swaras which are [अ,आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ऋ, ऋृ, ऌ, ऌृ, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ].

In this chapter, we will learn about Consonants which are also called Vyanjanani[व्यञ्जनानि].

The remaining 10 Maheshwara sutra define the consonants but they need to be defined in an order to make sense. There are 33 Consonants which are divided into 2 groups, Grouped Consonants and Ungrouped consonants. There are 25 Consonants which are Grouped and 8 which are Ungrouped.

The Grouped consonants follow a miraculous and brilliant way of utterance. They are grouped in the order which starts from the pit of our throat and ends at our Labials or lips.

The First Group is called Ka-Varga / [क्, ख्, ग्, घ्, ङ्] because they are only uttered from the Pit of our Throat / [कण्ठीय व्यञ्जनानि].

The Second Group is called Cha-Varga / [ च्, छ्, ज्, झ्, ञ्] because they are only uttered from the Palatals / [तालव्य व्यञ्जनानि].

The Third Group is called Ta-Varga / [ ट्, ठ्, ड्, ढ्, ण्] because they are only uttered from the Retroflexes / [मुर्धन्य व्यञ्जनानि].

The Fourth Group is called ta-Varga / [त्, थ्, द्, ध्, न्] because they are only uttered from the Dentals/Teeths / [दन्तव्य व्यञ्जनानि].

The Fifth Group is called Cha-Varga / [प्, फ्, ब्, भ्, म्] because they are only uttered from the Labials / Lips / [ओष्ठ्य व्यञ्जनानि].

क वर्ग कण्ठीय	च वर्ग तालव्य	त वर्ग मुर्धन्य	ट वर्ग दन्तव्य	प वर्ग ओष्ठ्य
क्	च्	ट्	त्	प्
ख्	छ्	ठ्	थ्	फ्
ग्	ज्	ड्	द्	ब्
घ्	झ्	ढ्	ध्	भ्
ङ्	ञ्	ण्	न्	म्

The Ungrouped Consonants are 8 in number, and 4 of them are called अन्तःस्थ व्यञ्जनानि and ऊष्म व्यञ्जनानि.

अन्तःस्थ व्यञ्जनानि are also called Semi-Vowels as they are between vowels and ऊष्म व्यञ्जनानि / Hard Consonants.

ऊष्म व्यञ्जनानि are called Hard Consonants because we utter them hot air comes out of our mouth.

क वर्ग कण्ठीय	च वर्ग तालव्य	त वर्ग मुर्धन्य	ट वर्ग दन्तव्य	प वर्ग ओष्ठ्य
	य	र	ल	व
ह	श	ष	स

There are a few compound vowels which are made when 2 consonants are grouped together. Some of them are,

क् + ष् = क्ष ,

त् + र् = त्र ,

ज् + ञ् = ज्ञ,

द् + य् = द्य,

प् + र् = प्र,

द् + ध् = द्ध,

भ् + र् = भ्र,

This Constitutes the Consonants also called व्यञ्जनानि, you can practice and also improve your vocal depth by practicing them for extended periods of time.