Here are some scholarly deliberations on visarga versus parasavarṇa in Sanskrit:

W. S. Allen (1953: 51):

"In later, though still ancient, times there appears to have been a tendency for -ḥ to extend its usage to contexts other than in pausa. The earliest of these extensions was to the position before the initial fricatives ś, ṣ, s,

where it replaced the homorganic final ś, ṣ, s (indraśśūraḥ > indraḥ śūraḥ, &c). This practice was then extended to the position before the velar and labial voiceless stops: in connexion with this innovation we find mentioned the names of  Āgniveśya, Vālmīki, Śākalya, and the Mādhyandina school, whilst the ancient grammarian Śākaṭāyana is quoted as holding to the more conservative practice."

Allen also refers to A. H. Fry’s (1941) view that “the spread of -ḥ was due to the writers of Classical Sanskrit operating with a phonemic orthography.”

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

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