Ardor (73 page)

NOTE ON SANSKRIT PRONUNCIATION

The
a
is closed and is similar to the
u
in
but
; the vowels
ā
,
ī
, and
ū
are long: for example,
ī
is pronounced like
ee
in
feet
, not like the
i
in
fi
t
;
ṛ
is a vowel and is pronounced by resting it on a barely discernible
i
or
u.
The
e
is closed as in
better
; the
o
is closed as in
bother.

The
g
is always hard: for example
g
ī
t
ā
is pronounced
geeta
; the
c
is always soft: for example,
cakra
is pronounced
chakra. S
is always like the
s
in
sound
;
ś
and
ṣ
are more or less like
sh
in
shun.
Ṛṣ
i
is therefore pronounced
rishi.
The retroflexed
ṭ
,
ḍ
, and
ṇ
are pronounced by bending the tongue back to touch the palate, as in
utter
,
udder
, or
runner.
The aspirate occlusives
kh
,
gh
,
ch
,
jh
,
th
,
dh
,
th
,
ph
, and
bh
are single phonemes, and are pronounced with an aspiration after the consonant: for example,
ph
is pronounced as in
top hat
, not as in
telephone
, and
th
is pronounced as in
dirt heap
, not as in
think
or
father.

Ñ
is like the
n
in
country
;
h
is a sounded aspiration as in
inherent.

The accent falls on the last long vowel (for example:
Praj
ā
pati
is pronounced
Prajápati
). The vowels
e
and
o
are also long. Furthermore, all vowels are long when positioned before consonant groups. If there are no long vowels, the accent is placed on the third or fourth to last syllable (if this is a root syllable). For example:
Gáruda
,
Gótama
,
ś
ráma
ṇ
a.

A few words that are typically Vedic are stressed with a musical tone called
ud
ā
tta
, which required the pitch of the voice to be raised, but this has disappeared in Classical Sanskrit.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has had the good fortune to encounter some most congenial people along its way: Federica Ragni, who has followed and digitalized every transformation from the manuscript to the printed page; Paolo Rossetti, who has taken care of all typographical matters; Michela Acquati, who has given her expertise during the final stages of the work; Francesca Coppola and Valeria Perrucci, who have given their help in numerous tasks; and Maddalena Buri, the Athenic eye within the text. Roberto Donatoni compensated the author’s linguistic doubts with the abundance of his knowledge and rechecked the quotations from the Sanskrit texts and those translations for which the author is responsible. Finally, Lila Azam Zanganeh went through the English translation, making some valuable remarks. That this book is dedicated to Claudio Ruga
fi
ori is just an indication of how much the book itself owes to him. My gratitude to everyone.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece: Soapstone seal, Mohenjo-daro, 2300–1750
B.C.E.
National Museum, New Delhi.

Departure of Zhang Yichao for war
, fresco, detail, late Tang period,
A.D.
848–906. Caves of Mogao, cave no. 156, Dunhuang.

Head of
Ś
iva
, 8th century
A.D.
Candi Singosari archaeological site, Java.

Deer, detail from
The Penitence of Arjuna
, granite bas relief, 7th century
A.D.
Mahabalipuram.