To understand Telugu and similar scripts, one has to think in terms of syllables. Only when we look at these scripts from Roman alphabet, do we see the discussi

To understand Telugu and similar scripts, one has to think in terms of syllables. Only when we look at these scripts from Roman alphabet, do we see the discussion of consonant and vowel graphemes in the script. /peɪ/ is a syllable in English, but can be represented by these grapheme clusters: <pay>, <pei>, <pai>. The similar syllable is represented in Telugu or Devanagari this way: పే (Telugu script) or पे (Hindi/Devangari script); there are phonetic differences in the way this syllable represented: (a) /p/ is aspirated in English, but not in the telugu/devangari syllable; (b) the diphthon /eɪ/ is realized as a monophthong in Telugu/Devanagari scripts. <ja, virama, nya> sequence plays a major role in Sanskrit sandhi. In Sanskrit, in assimilatory contexts, a voiced palatal affricate /dʒ/ + a palatal nasal /ñ/ + some open vowel, leads to this sequence <ja, virama, nya>. Since this assimilation occurs in many contexts, the resultant grapheme is taught as part of alphabet in this special set of clusters: kSa, tra, jna ( క్ష త్ర జ్ఞ) or (क्ष त्र ज्ञ). In fact, there was a poet in Telugu, whose name was ksEtrajna (combo of these three graphemes with ligatures). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshetrajna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshetrajna (in general) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshetrayya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshetrayya (Telugu poet) The context of jna in Sanskrit: for instance, declension of the masuclar stem: rAjan http://littleredbook.vedicsociety.org.in/noun-tables/rajan---an-masculine http://littleredbook.vedicsociety.org.in/noun-tables/rajan--...