Some of my students have been asking about this, so…

Here’s everything you need to know about the anusvāra (अनुस्वार)! What it is, when it appears, when it doesn’t, and how to pronounce it.🧵 1/ The anusvāra is known as the “pure nasal”, in that it is a nasal sound that is not tied down to any of the places in the mouth where sounds are typically made. It is tied down to the nose alone. It is written as a dot on top in Devanāgarī, or as ṁ or ṃ in IAST (I prefer ṁ). 2/

Let’s think of all of Sanskrit literature like a circle.
Break the circle up into slices (think of pizza or pie), which are like the subject areas contained in Sanskrit literature. These include poetry, medicine, philosophy, law, etc.
Now break those up into smaller parts… 1/ The subject areas in Sanskrit can be divided into texts, which contain and/or contribute to that branch of knowledge.
These texts can further be broken into paragraphs;
paragraphs into sentences;
and sentences into words.
Sanskrit doesn’t stop there though… 2/

If you're just getting into the study of #Sanskrit grammar, one of the first things you need to learn is the Māheśvara Sūtras, aka the Śiva Sūtras. In this thread I'll teach you everything you need to know about them to get started.
#Pāṇini
1/ Let's start by recalling that thread about the story of Pāṇini. He received these sūtras as a gift from Śiva, who was dancing out of happiness at Pāṇini's austerities. On the surface, they are simply a special rearrangement of the alphabet. 2/

https://twitter.com/TheSanskritDude/status/1538039673259446273?s=20&t=nwP3vmmc9sBL6ER_2AABCQ

My adaptation of Madālasā's Lullaby from the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa. Please enjoy! 🎶

Find it on YouTube here:

A small thread about the lullaby in context. 1/5

#Sanskrit In this section of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Queen Madālasā and King Ṛtadhvaja have 4 sons. After the birth of the 1st 3 sons, Madālasā laughs at Ṛtadhvaja for having given them “useless” names, Vikrānta (victorious), Subāhu (strong), & Śatrumardana (destroyer of enemies). 2/5

THE STORY OF #PĀṆINI

#SanskritStoryTime

Once upon a time around 500 BCE, in a town called Takshashila, there lived a boy named Pāṇini, and he was an utter fool. Everyone made fun of him for being a fool, and his parents and teachers thought he would amount to nothing. One day, he somehow got admitted to Takshashila University, where people came from far and wide to study. Perhaps his father knew someone there, or perhaps they took pity on him. He was a #Sanskrit #Grammar major. Grammar was the respectable subject to study at the time.