As a flute pours forth melodious music so the mouth pours forth melodious sounds and as the flute manipulates air within the chambers of its body so air is manipulated throughout the anatomy of the mouth to produce language.

 

A simultaneous trapping and releasing of air is the rhythm which produces the sounds we recognise as language and those places which trap and release are recognised in the Ancient language of Sanskrit as natural points of pronunciation known as the 'vargas'.

 

Varga means a 'group' it means a 'division' it means a 'class' and here it expresses a group of sounds belonging to a particular point of pronunciation and the first point of pronunciation is known as the 'gutturals' so named as they express sounds which begin from the throat ( guttur ).

 

 

As pictured above 'gutturals' are one of five points of pronunciation progressing like the holes of a flute and descending from this lowest point of pronunciation to the 'palatals' to the 'cerebrals' to the 'dentals' to the 'labials' and as the holes of a flute they travel in a straight line along the roof of the mouth.

 

As the first point of pronunciation 'gutturals' produce 'ka' the first consonant of the alphabet is formed as the back of the tongue contacts the back of the throat thereby trapping the air which when released produces 'ka' the very first consonant of the Sanskrit alphabet.

 

Mother nature has chosen 'ka' as the first consonant as it is impossible to trap the air and produce a consonant below this point and along with 'ka' comes 'kha' 'ga' 'gha' the nasal 'na' and the long and short vowel 'A' all proceeding from this first point of pronunciation known as the 'gutturals'.

 

 

As an unambiguous language Sanskrit clearly defines consonants as 'sparsas' as in sounds produced from contact ( sprsa ) while vowels are known as 'asparsa' meaning sounds which are without ( a ) contact ( sprsa ) a free flowing movement which finds no impediment.

 

All of language rests upon vowels as even consonants cannot be pronounced without a vowel and attempting to do so is like pressing the lips together without parting them, hence consonants such as 'pa' 'ba' 'ma' could never be pronounced and some 5000 years ago the Supreme Lord mentioned their importance in his Gita.

 

"Of letters I am the letter A, and among compounds I am the dual word. I am also inexhaustable time, and of creators I am Brahma, whose manifold faces turn everywhere." Gita 10.33.

 

 

As we progress from the 'gutturals' our next point of pronunciation is the 'palatals' so named as the front part of the tongue contacts the upper palate and this produces the consonants 'ca' 'cha' 'ja' 'jha' the nasal 'na' and the long and short vowel 'I'.

 

Observing language as it develops from one point of pronunciation to another along the natural structure of the mouth we should spare a thought for the English language whose alphabet is as scientifically arranged as the big bang, free from any form of logic, reason or rationality, as lamented by the great Sanskrit scholar Arthur A Macdonell.

 

“We the Europeans, 2,500 years later, and in a scientific age, still employ an alphabet which is not only inadequate to represent all the sounds of our language, but we even preserve the random order in which vowels and consonants are jumbled up, as they were in the Greek adaptation of the primitive Semitic arrangement of 3000 years ago“.

 

 

As we continue along the roof of the mouth we reach the third point of pronunciation known as the 'cerebrals' whose point of pronunciation is the hard palate at the back of the teeth and as the tongue curves to make contact it naturally produces the consonants 'ta' 'tha' 'da' 'dha' the nasal 'na' as well as forming the long and short vowel 'R'.

 

The Ancient language of Sanskrit begins at the lowest point of pronunciation which is known as the 'gutturals' and like the holes of a flute it progresses to its next point which is known as the 'palatals' and then to the next hole which is known as the 'cerebrals' and now we arrive at the teeth which are known as the 'dentals'.

 

The 'dentals' where the tip of the tongue touches behind the upper teeth are only a subtle difference from the 'cerebrals' and of course they naturally produce the consonants 'ta' 'tha' 'da' 'dha' and the nasal 'na' though the 'dentals' are pronounced slightly different from the 'cerebrals'.

 

 

As with the holes of a flute these natural points of pronunciation progress in a straight line expressing the alignment between the tongue and the roof of the mouth as the language begins from the 'gutturals' and descends naturally to the 'palatals' to the 'cerebrals' to the 'dentals' and culminates at the lips which are known as the 'labials'.

 

Labials are those sounds which are produced either at or with the lips and the only consonants in which the tongue is not used and this produces the consonants which are known as 'pa' 'pha' 'ba' 'bha' and 'ma' as well as forming the long and short vowel 'U'.

 

We find there is more to the Sanskrit alphabet such as the sibilants, semi vowels and the mixed vowels but the purpose of this article is not an in depth explanation but simply to show how language is a science and also to offer a glimpse of what an authentic alphabet looks like.

 

 

"One of ancient Indias greatest achievements is her remarkable alphabet, commencing with the vowels and followed by the consonants, all classified very scientifically according to their mode of production, in sharp contrast to the haphazard and inadequate Roman alphabet, which has developed organically for three millennia. It was only on the discovery of Sanskrit by the West that a science of phonetics arose in Europe." The Wonder That Was India - A. Basham, Professor of Asian Civilization in the Australian national University, Canberra.

 

'If i was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, i would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Sanskrit language and all that it contains." Jawaharlal Nehru.

 

'The Panini grammar reflects the wondrous capacity of the human brain, which till today no other country has been able to produce except India'. ( Sir Monier Williams ).