Interactive tool

Pratyāhāra Explorer

Pāṇini named any group of Sanskrit sounds with just two letters: a starting sound and a marker from his fourteen Māheśvara Sūtras. अच् (ac) means every vowel; हल् (hal) every consonant. Try it yourself.

1. Click any sound to start a group.
2. Click a dashed marker further along to close it, or pick one of the famous groups.
3. Watch the same group light up in the familiar alphabet, the वर्णमाला (varṇamālā).
4. Switch to “Which groups hold a sound?” to see every one of Pāṇini’s 42 groups that contains a sound.

Curious how and why this works? Part 1 of Reading Pāṇini explains the Māheśvara Sūtras, the markers, and why this two-letter trick let a 2,400-year-old grammar fit in human memory.