.png "Bharat Boards: Where Ancient Roots Meet Modern Branches")
12-08-2024, 01:10 PM
History
Shiksha, states Hartmut Scharfe, was the first branch of linguistics to develop as an independent Vedic field of study among the Vedangas. This is likely because Vedas were transmitted from one generation to the next by oral tradition, and the preservation and the techniques of preservation depended on phonetics, states Scharfe.
The earliest Brahmanas – a layer of text within the Vedas, include some terms of art in the Vedic phonetics, such as Varna and Avasana. The Shiksha field was likely well developed by the time Aranyakas and Upanishads layer of the Vedas were being composed. The alphabet had been categorized by this time, into vowels (svara), stops (sparsha), semivowels (antastha) and spirants (ushman). The field was fundamental to the ancient study of linguistics, and it developed as an interest and inquiry into sounds rather than letters. Shiksha, as described in these ancient texts, had six chapters – varna (sound), svara (accent), matra (quantity), bala (strength, articulation), saman(recital) and samtana (connection between preceding and following sounds).
The insights from this field, states Scharfe, "without doubt was applied by Vedic scholars to the art of writing". It also impacted the development of Indic scripts and evolution of language in countries that sought Indian texts or were influenced by Indian religions. According to Scharfe, and other scholars, the insights developed in this field, over time, likely also influenced phonetic scripts in parts of East Asia, as well as Arabic grammarian Khalil in 8th-century CE.
Shiksha, states Hartmut Scharfe, was the first branch of linguistics to develop as an independent Vedic field of study among the Vedangas. This is likely because Vedas were transmitted from one generation to the next by oral tradition, and the preservation and the techniques of preservation depended on phonetics, states Scharfe.
The earliest Brahmanas – a layer of text within the Vedas, include some terms of art in the Vedic phonetics, such as Varna and Avasana. The Shiksha field was likely well developed by the time Aranyakas and Upanishads layer of the Vedas were being composed. The alphabet had been categorized by this time, into vowels (svara), stops (sparsha), semivowels (antastha) and spirants (ushman). The field was fundamental to the ancient study of linguistics, and it developed as an interest and inquiry into sounds rather than letters. Shiksha, as described in these ancient texts, had six chapters – varna (sound), svara (accent), matra (quantity), bala (strength, articulation), saman(recital) and samtana (connection between preceding and following sounds).
The insights from this field, states Scharfe, "without doubt was applied by Vedic scholars to the art of writing". It also impacted the development of Indic scripts and evolution of language in countries that sought Indian texts or were influenced by Indian religions. According to Scharfe, and other scholars, the insights developed in this field, over time, likely also influenced phonetic scripts in parts of East Asia, as well as Arabic grammarian Khalil in 8th-century CE.