here is the transliterated sanskrit alphabet (to latin script).
it acts as a "table" for the letters to stand in, with vowels (a, i, u, e, o and semivowels y,r,l,v) at the bottom and consonants at the top (which by columns, स्थान (stana) — places of articulation, from left to right are ordered to be as going from the back of the mouth to the tip of the lips, with the square box marking the possibility of महाप्राण mahaapraana [added exhalation] . In Devanagari there is a horizontal top line called सूत्र (sutra) — the thread, symbol of the mind — present in every letter. it presents writing as the making of a garland, similarly the H here stands for the breathspan (in the shape of a mathematical segment, a line with two ends, to indicate the stoppings of breath कुम्भक (kumbhaka) and शून्यक (shunyaka)), after all, it is presenting or measuring the exhaling that carries all sounds. in this way the table is also the breath; and it presents or measures the exhalation which brings all the sounds of speech with it.
it is there as an aesthetic element and also because in sanskrit the metric length of vowels, as short लघु (laghu) and long गुरु (guru) sounds, (similarly to how latin mora works), can get combined to fit into a specific poetic metering, so if you go seeing for each consequent meter length of poetic verse, how many combinations of short and long sound are possible, the pingala succesion arises. — known in the west as Fibonacci — and otherwise known also as maatra meru (mountain of metric) (https://youtu.be/siFBqH-LaQQ explained by a mathematician). also spiral in sanskrit is सर्पिल (sarpila), the same word means serpent
you can see the ॐ (aum̐) mantra moves through that spiral — from the bottom-up — for the A resonates in the navel, U in the chest, M in the neck.
from the spiral top-down would read as "shambhavaa" in which sham means twilight or junction and bhava means emotion, in sanskrit
the image shows a correspondance with the fingers of the hand, might want to call this kaara nyasa: vowels can be mapped onto the palm, consonants on the finger phalanges (finger sections), with mahapraana on each joint, finally the sibilant letters are written uptop over the fingers, they stand up there as the three spokes of a त्रिशूल (trishula) — the trident.
https://youtube.com/shorts/JsJZl5FYV8w here is the nyasa (correspondence) in video format
Maatra and the 5 elements
also, what do you think of this relationship, about the length of speech and the elements:
laghu (short sound) - earth (annamayakosha),
guru (long) - water (manomayakosha),
pluta (longer) - fire (pranamayakosha),
swara (sustained, mental) - air (vijnanamayakosha),
and raga (melodious, varied) - akash (anandamayakosha)
and lastly,
what about the squiggly shapes?
what do you think devanagari squiggles stand for?(it could be like snakes crawling and mingling simbolically?)
since korean (hangul) shows the tongue placement for each sound (and even this diagram of latin script kinda does too if you look in certain characters like
K (tongue and palate meeting at the back of mouth),
B with two lips that are used to sound it,
T with the tongue reaching for the roof of the mouth,
O with the rounded lips,...
maybe devanagari shows where in the body each letter resonates?
and lastliest,
then the two together are shambhavām̐ (shambhavaa+aum)
and then if you map these two in the right and left side (as this graph shows the right hand) it can be further simbolised by अनुलोम विलोम (anuloma viloma): inhale through left nostril, exhale through right. in hatha yoga the left half of the body is lunar and the right is solar.
what if one says aloud shambhavā (downwards motion) and simultaneously mentally reciting aum̐ (upwards motion); are these motions the naturally present qualities of each both body and mind?
or maybe this too can be expressed in the duality of question and answer. "shambhavā? aum̐."
or if one mentally recites shambhavaa while inhaling and loudly say aum while exhale, thats another way it can go.
maybe its beautiful to join the hands together in namaste after seeing this :)
also the sanskrit language is repleted of chest originating exhalation sound (Ha, or Ahh sound, like a sigh of relief) to the point that there is a rule in the grammar that states that whenever the Ha sound comes before a nasal sound it should be uttered after it instead, the aim of this is to produce a chest originating sound that relaxes the speech, instead of a neck constricting one. so the whole of the speech is relaxed always!
the next image represents लिङ्ग चन्द्र बिन्दु (linga chandra and bindu) or patra sutra and yoga, where patra means leaf
linga means mark or form in sanskrit and is associated with the male seed and fire ash, thus white in color, and also with the right side of the body in hatha yoga, the solar half. simbolically here can represent a letter or glyph.
in sanskrit all letters are bound by a horizontal line on top called as sutra (meaning thread) and simbolises the mind. now this is chandra, the crescent moon colored red as the menstrual and as fire of the funerary pyre! its associated with the lunar left side of the body.
the black around is the void of space, and it is also in clear form in the bindu!
the crescent moon can simbolise a concave bowl, and the bottom linga can be the mallet that sounds it by rubbind the rim and the bindu the ringing sound it produces. and this can also be done by simply clapping your right hand onto the left as per what i said of the left and right sides.
the image elements from the bottom up can simbolise the body, the mind and the speech
the 10th century philosopher Abhinavagupta of kashmir stated that the 16 vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet are referred to as “bija” (“seed”), while the 33 consonants are called “yoni-s.”
with this in mind, when one claps the right hand fingers onto the left hand palm to produce a sound, its the consonants (yonis) from the solar (masculine) half of body, coming in union with the vowels (bijas) of the lunar (femenine) side.
similarly to how it is said in the mandukya upanishad, regarding the aum mantra,
"a" can simbolise the body (linga), or waking world, "u" can simbolise the mind (chandra) or dreaming state and "m" deep sleep state, (bindu?)... then there is the equanimous silence which is present through all sounds, maybe it is the self, or the black of the night.
also here is some art with the idea of this image:
click here to see more art