On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 4:44 AM Raik Strunz via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

. . . And samskr̥ta-, afaik, would be an outrageous violation of articulatory norms and practice in the higher registers of Vedic Sanskrit as well as Epic-Classical Sanskrit. 

About 20 years ago I wanted to check to check how vedic priests of the taittiriya sakha pronounced classical sanskrit.  I wanted to check this because in their chanting of the taittiriya-samhita, anusvara in certain places is pronounced as a kind of "gum" sound.   To do this I collected examples of taittiriya priests chanting the bhagavad-gita.  What I found was that in the south (Kerala and Tamil Nadu) taittiriya priests when chanting the bhagavad-gita pronounced anusvara as the class nasal before consonents,  but before s ś ṣ y h anusvara was pronounced as "m".  This agrees with what Chatterji said about pronunciation of anusvara in the south.  

I also checked the pronunciation of anusvara  by taittiriya priests from Maharashtra  when chanting the bhagavad-gita and there, and the pronounciation of anusvara befroe s ś ṣ y h was similar to what Dominik Haas recommended.  I.e. pronouncing an "m" without closing the lips.

Harry Spier