What is "visarga"

n. the voiceless ''h'' in Sanskrit which repeats echo-like the preceding vowel after itself

Visarga ( IAST: ) meaning "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit phonology (), (also called, equivalently, by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone, , written as:

Transliteration

Symbol

IAST

Harvard-Kyoto

Devanagari

Visarga is an allophone of and in pausa (at the end of an utterance). Since is a common inflectional suffix (of nominative singular, second person singular, etc.), visarga appears frequently in Sanskrit texts. In the traditional order of Sanskrit sounds, visarga and anusvāra appear between vowels and stop consonants.

The precise pronunciation of visarga in Vedic texts may vary between Śākhās. Some pronounce a slight echo of the preceding vowel after the fricative: will be pronounced , and will be pronounced .