Various Traditional Enumerations and Classifications of Sanskrit Speech Sounds: A Comparative Analysis

Sanskrit speech sounds (varṇas) are enumerated and classified in traditional Sanskrit grammatical works which are divided into three different genres of texts i.e. the śikṣās, the prātiśākhyas and the vyākaraṇas. (I exclude the Tantric accounts on varṇas, the main orientation of which has nothing to do with a pure phonological study.) In general, the prātiśākhya and the śikṣā texts deal with different branches of Vedic schools in which dialectal variations of Vedic Sanskrit are often notable, whereas the vyākaraṇa texts, as we find them today, are mostly engaged in describing the standard form of language which is often referred to as ‘Classical Sanskrit’. The enumeration and classification of Sanskrit speech sounds differ remarkably not only in the śikṣā and the prātiśākhya texts but also in vyākaraṇa texts of different schools. In these texts, not only the number of the speech sounds but also their classification and representation are diverse. A survey of these grammatical works reveals that there are two major schemes of traditional enumerations and classifications of Sanskrit speech sounds. The early grammatical works follow either of these schemes. But in some later works of Sanskrit grammar, we find a gradual blend of them. This paper tries to document the methods of enumerating, classifying and representing the speech sounds in these Sanskrit grammatical works, compare these accounts with one another and find the reasons behind such variations in certain cases