शिवसूत्राणि

In response to my article on Morphological Thoughts and अष्टाध्यायी, one दक्षा-महोदया enquired with me whether I have any write-up on माहेश्वरसूत्राणि. I thank दक्षा-महोदया for motivating this write-up.The title above has the word शिवसूत्राणि. Obviously these are different names.Some people contend that they should be called only माहेश्वरसूत्राणि because they are said to have been composed by a grammarian by the name महेश्वर.There is another anecdote which contends that the सूत्र-s were realized by सनकादि ऋषि-s, when they were blessed by शिव by sounding his ढक्का/डमरू in (9+5) 14 patterns. This is so said in a श्लोकनृत्तावसाने नटराजराजः ननाद ढक्कां नवपञ्चवारम् |उद्धर्तुकामः सनकादिसिद्धानेतद्विमर्शे शिवसूत्रजालम् ||Anyway, these are 14 सूत्र-s –(1) अ इ उ ण् (2) ऋ ऌ क् (3) ए ओ ङ् (4) ऐ औ च् (5) ह य व र ट् (6) ल ण् (7) ञ म ङ ण न म् (8) झ भ ञ् (9) घ ढ ध ष् (10) ज ब ग ड द श् (11) ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् (12) क प य् (13) श ष स र् (14) ह ल् ॥It be noted that every सूत्रम् ends with a consonant. That consonant is to be understood to be only the end-marker of the सूत्रम्. Leaving out the end markers, we can see that there are 43 elements (listed below in groups of 5 to make counting easy) –अ इ उ ऋ ऌए ओ ऐ औ हय व र ल ञम ङ ण न झभ घ ढ ध जब ग ड द खफ छ ठ थ चट त क प शष स हThis in a way is देवनागरी alphabet वर्णमाला. But the order is different from the way one learns it in schools or is followed in dictionaries. Also the letter ह is repeated. Omitting the repetition, we have 42 letters. Of these अ इ उ ऋ ऌ ए ओ ऐ औ these 9 are vowels. Rest 33 are consonants.It becomes good to reorganize the सूत्र-s as

अ इ उ ण् । ऋ ऌ क् । ए ओ ङ् । ऐ औ च् । – Note, these are all vowels.
ह य व र ट् । ल ण् । – These are called as अन्तस्थ-s or half-vowels.
ञ म ङ ण न म् । – These are all nasals.
झ भ ञ् । घ ढ ध ष् । – These are महाप्राणमृदुव्यञ्जनानि stressed soft consonants
ज ब ग ड द श् । – These are अल्पप्राणमृदुव्यञ्जनानि unstressed soft consonants
ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व् । क प य् । – These are कठोरव्यञ्जनानि harsh consonants
श ष स र् । – These are ऊष्मव्यञ्जनानि
ह ल् ॥ – Not to be counted, since it is a repeat ह.