varnamala
वर्णमाला varnamalaThe 'garland of sounds': the ordered inventory of the speech-sounds of Sanskrit, each varna an akshara arranged by the place and manner of its articulation.
Where this term appears
- Keeping the Sound Treatise
The proof is sitting in plain view in the varnamala , the "garland of sounds," the ordered inventory that every Indian schoolchild still learns.
- The Branching Hand Treatise
…ernal or divinely given, with the very sound-set of the language, the varnamala , fixed for all time by the Maheshvara-sutras , the fourteen sound-aphorisms traditionally ascribed to Shiva.
- The Garland of Letters Treatise
The string of heads at Kali's throat is, in the inner explanation, the Varnamala , the "garland of letters," the fifty, and as some count them fifty-one, letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.