This
Online Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide is a
resource for Yoga teachers and students interested
in learning how to better pronounce
and understand the Sanskrit words that we use and
encounter in our
classes, conversations, texts, and teachings. Here
you will find these
Sanskrit words in the original Devanagari script,
the corresponding transliteration, English translations
of the
terms and their roots,
and streamable
audio
files of these words being pronounced.
Each
Sanskrit word on this site has
been looked up individually in order to provide the most accurate
pronunciation, transliteration, and definition.
I have used the IAST (International
Alphabet
of Sanskrit) transliteration schema,
the academic standard which, containing the essential diacritical marks,
renders a lossless transliteration
of
all
the
Devanagari
phonemes. Because the fonts used for the Devanagari and Romanized transliterations
(Sanskrit 99 and URW
Palladio
IT, respectively) are not standard on today's
operating systems and internet browsers, it was
necessary to save all text as
image files; the result will
be slower page loads for those with slower connection
speeds. This site requires the Flash
MX plugin to stream audio.
The
Sanskrit tools and resources I have used are ITRANS
99, V.S. Apte's The Practical
Sanskrit-English
Dictionary, and Capeller's
Sanskrit-English
Dictionary. The
definitions of terms, on a whole, lean towards being literal so
as to avoid the otherwise necessity of explaining multiple meanings
and usages
within the various yoga schools and their respective philosophical
frameworks. The primary resources, and in some instances sources,
for the translation
of the Sanskrit prayers, mantras, and selected verses,
are those
by
Vyaas
Houston and
Sri
Swami Satchidananda.
The focus
of this site is limited in scope. Its purpose is not to
provide detailed instruction or descriptions of the practices
found within. I refer those interested to these excellent resources:
the Bihar School of Yoga's Asana,
Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on
Yoga,
and Georg Feuerstein's The Shambhala
Encyclopedia of Yoga.
The
streamable
audio
files
were
recorded
at Monkeyclaus Studio,
a
Hanuman studio and social movement dedicated to raising
awareness through new media and creative partnerships. Thank you, Monkeys!
If
you value this free resource and
would
like
to
support
this project,
please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of bandwidth.
Send
questions and comments to tilak@
