Sai Gurukulam Website Page 1 of 1

Sai Gurukulam
Vedic Chant Diacritics

Vedic mantras are chanted with svara, like music. This sets up powerful
vibrations that benefit people who chant and listen to. While it is best to learn
the svara from vedic pundits, the svara diacritical marks are listed below for
those who read vedic mantras and try to practice chanting them on their own.
Svara
Meaning
mark
With no svara marks, the state of intonation is called
udattam. The letter is pronounced normally.
Denotes the state anudattam. The letter is pronounced
with time less by a unit of two-thirds of a second than it
takes for the normal pronunciation.
Denotes the state svaritam. The letter is pronounced
with time more by a unit of two-thirds of a second than
it takes for the normal pronunciation.
Denotes the state dheerka svaritam. The letter is
pronounced with time more by two units each of two-
thirds of a second than it takes for the normal
pronunciation.

file://I:\00sgWebRef\00new\sgVedicSymbols.htm 5/15/2010