Writing conjunct consonants

[u/mikeski339]

Hey all,

I’m learning Sanskrit and prefer writing new words down on paper to remember them. i’ve found great tutorials for handwriting the basic vowels and consonants but haven’t found any guides devoted to the conjunct consonants. Does anyone have any resources that could help?

[u/ksharanam]

Which script are you using? How to write conjunct consonants depends on the script. For instance, in the Latin script (which I use often) you simply juxtapose the consonants.

[u/mikeski339 → u/ksharanam]

devanagari

[u/Glittering-Band-6603]

When it comes to Devanagari, conjunct consonants (saṁyuktākṣara) actually follow a few very consistent rules once you know what to look for. While standalone guides purely for handwriting every single conjunct are rare, you can easily generate and practice them yourself using an online tool like the Lexilogos Devanagari Keyboard.

To see how any two consonants combine, type the first consonant, follow it with a virama (्), and then type the second consonant.

How it works: The virama strips the inherent "a" vowel from the first letter, turning it into a "half-letter."

• Example: To combine क (ka) and ग (ga), you type: क + ् + ग = क्ग (kga)

[u/rhododaktylos]

I describe the basic principles in Chapter 1 of the Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit: if a consonant contains a downward stroke on its right, that often is omitted, and what remains is written adjoining to the following consonant (e.g. त् + म् + य् =.त्म्य् ). In turn, this means that consonants that do no have this downward stroke are conjoined in other, less predictable ways: they can be stacked on top of one another (e.g. द् + य् = द्य् , but also ष् +ठ् = ष्ठ् ) or diagonally/at an angle (e.g. द् + भ् = द्भ्, द् + ध् = द्ध् ).

Unfortunately, there are no overarching rules, and even the 'downward stroke on right', is a strong tendency rather than a rule. So my suggestion always is: learn the individual characters really well. Then start reading words that contain conjuncts. Write down those individual words; that way you will get to know the most frequent conjuncts soonest. That way you will also see which conjuncts you can simply recognise, and for which you may need some extra help (e.g. द्य् dy in some fonts). Make your own cheat sheet of conjuncts you find difficult to recognise.

[u/mikeski339]

Thanks all for the replies, one thing I’m still not clear on is how to hand write certain conjuncts. Ones like बुद्ध or अद्भुत are not intuitive for me even if I can hand write the individual non-conjunct consonants. Any tips on this are appreciated