Text 8.21

के कस्येत्य् आह,

ke kasyety āha,

Which phonemes and so on suggest which guṇa? In that regard he says:

mūrdhni vargāntya-gāḥ sparśā aṭa-vargā ra-ṇau laghū |
avṛttir madhya-vṛttir vā mādhurye ghaṭanā tathā ||8.74||

mūrdhni—at the beginning (lit. on the head); varga—of the group; antya—the last one; gāḥ—which get; sparśāḥ—the sparśas (lit. the touches) (the twenty-five consonants from k to m); aṭa-vargāḥ—devoid of the ṭa group; ra-ṇau—r and ṇ; laghū—short; avṛttiḥ—devoid of a compound; madhya-vṛttiḥ—a medium-sized compound; vā—or; mādhurye—in mādhurya (sweetness); ghaṭanā—the construction; tathā—in that way.

In mādhurya, the phonemes are the sparśas, except the ṭa group, with the corresponding nasal placed before, as well as a short r, and a short ṇ. Either there is no compound or there is a compound of medium length. The phonetic combinations are in that way.

śirasi nija-vargāntima-yuktāṣ ṭa-ṭha-ḍa-ḍha-varjitāḥ kādayo māntāḥ, repha-ṇa-kārau hṛsvāntāv iti varṇāḥ. asamāso madhya-samāso veti samāsaḥ. tathā mādhuryavatī padāntara-yoge racanā mādhuryasya vyañjikā.

The phonemes are the consonants from k to m—except ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, and ḍh—connected with the last one of their respective group, which is placed first; as well as a short r, and a short ṇ. The style compounding is either the absence of a compound or a medium-sized compound. “The phonetic combinations are in that way” means the construction in connection with another word has mādhurya (sweetness, melting). That construction is suggestive of the real mādhurya.

Commentary:

The sweet phonemes are as follows: ṅk, ṅkh, ṅg, ṅgh, ñc, ñch, ñj, ñjh, nt, nth, nd, ndh, mp, mph, mb, mbh, mm, single short r, and single short ṇ. Sometimes the anusvāra occurs instead of the sound ṅ, and so on. For instance, “kṛṣṇaṃ kuru” is the same as “kṛṣṇaṅ kuru.” They are optional forms. Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha adds the phonemes ṃś and ṃs to the list.^[1]

The word varṇa (phoneme) does not always translate as the word ‘letter’ in English because sometimes two letters make one phoneme (speech-sound).^[2] In addition, the anusvāra (ṃ) is a phoneme, and so is the visarga (ḥ).

The phonetic combinations which are part of the construction of mādhurya are phonetic combinations which make one of the above phonemes. For example, when the two words alam and kuru join to make the form alaṅkuru (adorn), there is a generation of a sweet phoneme (ṅk).^[3]

Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa says rā and ṇā are excluded from the list of sweet phonemes. Regarding the compounding, he says a medium-sized compound is a compound of either two, three, or four words. Moreover, when many phonemes which are not part of the above list repeatedly occur in the context of śṛṅgāra and so on, that is a fault in the construction of mādhurya.^[4] However, there is no fault when the soft phonemes are used in mādhurya. On the contrary, the soft phonemes assist the construction of mādhurya in the melting of the heart. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa referred to them earlier (8.3). Mammaṭa defines them in the next chapter (9.11). Sometimes the construction of softness is used by itself (Commentary 8.30). The most important soft phoneme is the letter l. Other important soft phonemes are: k, g, gh, jñ, t, d, dh, n, p, b, bh, m, y, v, s, h, and anusvāra (ṃ). In the construction of softness, there is no conjunct consonant.^[5]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

atas traya eva guṇā iti mammaṭa-bhaṭṭādayaḥ. tatra ṭa-varga-varjitānāṃ varṇānāṃ prathama-tṛtīyaiḥ śabhir antasthaiś ca ghaṭitā naikaṭyena prayuktair anusvāra-parasavarṇaiḥ śuddhānunāsikaiś ca śobhitā vakṣyamāṇaiḥ sāmānyato viśeṣataś ca niṣiddhaiḥ saṃyogādyair acumbitā, avṛttir mṛdu-vṛttir vā racanānupūrvyātmikā mādhuryasya vyañjikā. […] anye tu varga-sthānāṃ pañcānām aviśeṣeṇa mādhurya-vyañjakatām āhuḥ (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM pp. 64-65). Here Jagannātha also says the sounds yy, ll, lv, and so on, are sweet.

[2]:

For example, the sound nt is one sweet phoneme made of two letters (two original phonemes), but bh, for instance,is only one phoneme: In Sanskrit, the phonemes kh, gh, ch, jh, th, dh, ph, and bh each are only one letter.

[3]:

padāntara-yoga iti, yathā alaṅkurv ity atra padayoḥ sandhau madhura-varṇotpattiḥ (Sāra-bodhinī 8.74). The rules are: mo viṣṇucakraṃ viṣṇujane (HNV 72); mo’nusvāraḥ (Aṣṭādhyāyī 8.3.23);viṣṇucakrasya hariveṇur viṣṇuvarge, viṣṇupadāntasya tu vā (Hari-nāmāmṛtavyākaraṇa 73); vā padāntasya (Aṣṭādhyāyī 8.4.59).

[4]:

hrasva-svareti, tena rā ṇā ity āder vyudāsaḥ. atra niṣiddhānām asakṛd upādāne doṣatā bodhyā. avṛttir ity anena vaidarbhī uktā. madhyamatā dviḥ-tri-catuḥ-pada-kṛtā. eṣā pāñcālī rītiḥ śṛṅgāra-karuṇa-śānteṣu (Uddyota 8.74).

[5]:

komala-varṇānuprāsaḥ […] kaiścic chithila ity ucyate (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 7.20).