Writing Conjunct Consonants

Namaste, Swagatam and welcome back on the last lap of our journey to know how to write the Sanskrit consonants with the conjunct consonants as well. So here we are going to focus on the last part which is the conjunct consonants and you will see that the word conjunct consonants means that it is a combination of consonants. They are included often within the system of the consonants because they look a little different. It is important to see that the picture of the tr doesn't quite fit in how the tr is and the r is. So we will just see how they combine together.

We have three conjunct consonants which are the ksh, tr and the jnya. The ksh is sometimes also included in the group of sibilants and it forms part of the 50 letters or the 50 aksharas that correspond to the different chakras within the body. So the ksh is a combination of k and sh. The first is the ksh and it is the kh with the sh, the dot below and the er. I will write it out so kh plus sh plus er.

You want to break it up completely in the devanagari which is the script used to often represent Sanskrit. This is written as the ksh. It is a combination of kh plus sh plus the vowel er. This combines together to give us the sh but as you can see the final formation has nothing to do with the k and the sh and therefore it is incorporated within the system so that we understand it better and also it has its unique value within the sound system of the Sanskrit alphabet. So we have the ksh and we will see how to write it now.

So the first is you go like that 1, 2, 3 and then you get the tail. Finally do that you have the stick ksh, ksh, have that. The next one is the thr which is a combination of th plus r and this is how it is written in the diacritical thr which is a combination of th plus r. I am just writing the r together without breaking it up with the vowel because we have already done that a few times now. So that is the thr and that together gives us the thr, combination of the plus the r and how you write it out is it is the 1, 2 and 3.

If you want to slow it down further you can just say 1 and then 1 and 2 and then you do 1, 2, 3 and then you can put the stick there. So that is our thr. The final one is the jnya and as you can see it is a combination of the j plus the jnya. So here we have it as jnya which is j plus jnya. The j together is written as that in the Sanskrit alphabet and it is a combination of j plus j, you have to put that in to make it the phoneme j plus jnya and I will write it out there step by step, 1, 2 and the tail, 1, 2 tail and the stick.

Now what we find here is that we have the letters ksh, thr and jnya but these can again be combined with other consonants and when they get combined with the other consonants it is very simple so I will not get into it too much because all you need to do is drop it and connect it to the next letter. I will just show it to you with the letter ksh. We have the word lakshmi where you have ksh combined with m, this one, it is a combination of this and that. So this is what it would look like. We have the ksh plus the m giving us the kshma.

There you go. So that is the lakshmi. These combined consonants are part of the yogic tradition in an important manner because you have words like moksha which use that, lakshmi or mantra or otherwise yajnya. In each of these cases you just have to drop the t and join it to the next letter. So see if you can enjoy drawing these letters out.

So we will start with the ksh. Again don't copy me because if you try to just mirror me you will end up by doing the letter backwards. So just close your eyes, visualize the letter in your mind and then draw it out, ksh. Let the energy flow, do it with all the different letters, play with them. The whole process of discovering the Sanskrit alphabet is not just a process of learning another alphabet of just another language.

Sanskrit is very deeply connected to your inner being as well as to the cosmos around you. So when you use the language, when you use the written form of the language as well, it can serve as a very important gateway to allow us to peek into the universes that are beyond, above, everywhere, within. Enjoy the journey. Thank you. Poonar Milamaha.

Meet you again.