Why It’s Important to Keep Track of Double Vowels

In many publications, one sees the double vowels omitted from a word in Sanskrit. I do it myself sometimes, but mostly by accident.

For example, vaata, one of the doshas of Ayurveda, is often spelled vata.

This may be because the typeface of getting a long a is difficult and expensive to obtain and share or putting the two aa’s in makes the word look even longer and scarier.

Students then grow up in Sanskrit thinking that vaata is spelled vata.

Nonethless, it’s important to keep track of the vowels.

For example, vata in Sanskrit is actually a type of bird.

It can get worse.

Consider the words maala and mala. (In the definitions below, aa is spelled A while a is kept a. This is standard to the dictionaries used.)

mala n. (in later language also m. ; prob. fr. %{mlai}) dirt , filth , dust , impurity (physical and moral) AV. &c. &c. ; (in med.) any bodily excretion or secretion (esp. those of the Dha1tus q.v. , described as phlegm from chyle , bile from the blood , nose mucus and ear wax from the flesh , perspiration from the fat , nails and hair from the bones , rheum of the eye from the brain ; cf. also the 12 impurities of the body enumerated in Mn. v , 135) Sus3r. Va1gbh. &c. ; (with S3aivas) , original sin , natural impurity Sarvad. ; camphor L. ; Os Sepiae L. ; m. the son of a S3u1dra and a Ma1luki1 L. ; (%{A}) f. Flacourtia Cataphracta L. ; n. tanned leather , a leathern or dirty garment (?) RV. x , 136 , 2 ; a kind of brass or bell-metal L. ; the tip of a scorpion’s tail L. (v.l. %{ala}) ; mfn. dirty , niggardly L. ; unbelieving , godless L. [Cf. Gk. $ ; &240436[792 ,1] Lat. {ma8lus} ; Lith. {mo4lis} , {me4lynas}.]

mAlA f. a wreath , garland , crown Gr2S3rS. MBh. &c. ; a string of beads , necklace , rosary. Ka1v. Pan5cat. (cf. %{akSa-} and %{ratna-m-}) ; a row , line , streak MBh. Ka1v. &c. ; a series , regular succession (with %{nAmnAm} , a collection of words arrayed in a series , a vocabulary , dictionary ; cf. %{nAma-m-}) ; a kind of Krama-pa1tha (cf. %{krama-mAlA}) ; N. of various metres Col. ; (in rhet.) a series of epithets or similes W. ; (in dram.) a series of offerings for obtaining any object of desire (S3ak. iii , 17) Sa1h. ; (in astrol.) a partic. Dala-yoga (q.v.) VarBr2S. Sch. ; Trigonella Corniculata L. ; N. of a river MBh. ; of a glossary.

Big difference, no?

Aama and ama.

ama 2 mfn. (pron. ; cf. %{amu}) this AV. xiv , 2 , 71 (quoted in S3Br. xiv and A1s3vGr2.) [The word is also explained by %{prA7Na} , `" soul "' cf. Comm. on ChUp. v , 2 , 6.]
Ama 2 m. (probably identical with 1. %{Ama}) , sickness , disease L

You don’t want to be calling your ama, much less your amma, aama.

Paarvati and parvati.

Paarvati is consort of Shiva. Parvati is a stone.

Are you convinced? It’s really quite important.

I know I’m cheating a little bit because other special non-Western letters are usually not being accounted for on my site so far, but at the very least, it’s good to keep track of the double (long) vowels.

I also am choosing to keep using Ayurveda instead of AAyurveda and sutra instead of suutra because they have already entered the American lexicon that way.