Śikṣā
/ˈɕi.kʂɑː/noun
A traditional Sanskrit discipline concerned especially with pronunciation, phonetics, and the correct oral transmission of Vedic texts.
Did you know?In Vedic tradition, śikṣā treated sound as potent and required exact control of accent, duration, and articulation to preserve a text’s ritual force.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-Iranian
PII
*śikšā
“Learning, training, or instruction”
Vedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit
śikṣā
“Instruction and disciplined practice, especially in sacred recitation”
Classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit
śikṣā
“Phonetics and pronunciation as a branch of Vedic study”
19th Century
English
shiksha
“A scholarly transliteration referring to Sanskrit phonetics or Vedic pronunciation”
Modern English
English
śikṣā
“The traditional Sanskrit science of phonetics and correct recitation”