The Shiva Sutras

The Shiva Sutras describe a phonemic notational system in the fourteen initial lines of the Aṣṭādhyāyī, the Sanskrit grammar by Pāṇini. The notational system introduces different clusters of phonemes that serve special roles in the morphology of Sanskrit, and are referred to throughout the text. Each cluster, called a pratyāhara ends with a dummy sound called an anubandha (the so calledIT index), which acts as a symbolic referent for the list. Within the main text, these clusters, referred through the anubandha's, are related to various grammatical functions.

This type of initial notational verse is a standard structure in the sutra style, which focuses on creating short, mnemonic verses that encode complex rules. Often additional sounds may be added to the indices to make the overall string pronunciable.