page_title: Pratishakhyas
hierarchical_section_title: Pratishakhyas
caption_attribution_description: English: The Rigveda-Samhita is the only surviving recension of the oldest ritual hymns of India. It consists of 10 mandalas, composed between 1500–1200 BCE. It is in the archaic Sanskrit language. Pratishakhya (Sanskrit: प्रातिशाख्य prātiśākhya), also known as Parsada (pārṣada), are Vedic age manuals devoted to the precise and consistent pronunciation of words. They are a part of the Shiksha Vedanga: works dealing with the phonetic aspects of the Sanskrit language used in Vedas. Each Veda has a pratishakhya per school. Many pratishakhyas have survived into the modern age. The few manuscripts of the pratisakhyas that have survived into the modern era are likely from the 500 to 150 BCE period. The above photo is of a manuscript copied on paper in the 19th century, and is now MS 2162 of the Schoyen Collection, near Oslo, Norway. It is in Sanskrit, on paper, Devanagari script. This is a photograph of a two-dimensional manuscript copied in the 19th-century from a much older text. Therefore and PD-Art and PD-US-expired guidelines of wikimedia commons apply. Any rights I have as a photographer, I herewith donate to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0.
context_page_description: Pratishakhya, also known as Parsada, are Vedic-era manuals devoted to the precise and consistent pronunciation of words. These works were critical to the preservation of the Vedic texts, as well as the accurate ritual recitations and analyses of the Vedas, particularly when isolated words interact after they have been joined in sandhi procedures. Each Vedic school and geographic branch developed their own manuals, explaining why they have come to be called parsada or pratisakhya.
  They manuals are parts of the Shiksha Vedanga: works dealing with the phonetic aspects of the Sanskrit language used in the Vedas. Each Veda has a pratishakhya for each school. Many pratishakhyas have survived into the modern age, and, according to Hartmut Scharfe, all except one are based upon "recitation of isolated words". Pratishakhyas begin with word-for-word recitation, and then supply rules for the continuous recitation of texts. Though all the manuals have the same basic goal, they differ significantly in how each achieves that goal.
context_section_description: Pratishakhya (Sanskrit: प्रातिशाख्य prātiśākhya), also known as Parsada (pārṣada), are Vedic-era manuals devoted to the precise and consistent pronunciation of words. These works were critical to the preservation of the Vedic texts, as well as the accurate ritual recitations and analyses of the Vedas, particularly when isolated words interact after they have been joined in sandhi procedures. Each Vedic school (parisad, or parsad) and geographic branch (sakha) developed their own manuals, explaining why they have come to be called parsada or pratisakhya.
  They manuals are parts of the Shiksha Vedanga:  works dealing with the phonetic aspects of the  Sanskrit language used in the Vedas. Each Veda has a pratishakhya for each school. Many pratishakhyas have survived into the modern age, and, according to Hartmut Scharfe, all except one (Taittiriya pratisakhya) are based upon "recitation of isolated words". Pratishakhyas begin with word-for-word recitation, and then supply rules for the continuous recitation of texts. Though all the manuals have the same basic goal, they differ significantly in how each achieves that goal. They were composed centuries before the work of Pāṇini, but there is evidence in these manuals that many pratisakhya evolved and were revised over time by the respective school to their regional preferences. The few manuscripts of the pratisakhyas that have survived into the modern era are likely from the 500 to 150 BCE period. The phonetic aspects of Vajasaneyi Pratisakhya is closest to those found in the classic Sanskrit grammar work of Pāṇini.
caption: Dasatayi Pratisakhya of Saunakacharya, related to the Rigveda (Schoyen Collection Norway).
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