Sanskrit alphabets

Harey Krishna everyone 🙏
Dandwatt pranaam 🙏

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Answer

Just to make an example, there is no “w” in the devanagari alphabet.

Also the short “a”, whether is in the middle of a phrase or at the end, must be always written.
So, if you want to say it in sanskrit, it should be daṇḍavat pranāma.

In devanagari the short or long vowels are easily detected because they are two different letters altogether. Similar but different. But in any other alphabet there is not such a thing as short or long vowels.

So other alphabet have been created, like the IAST, whether you can differentiate various type of vowels, consonants, diphtongs ecc.

If one cannot write in IAST (like me) or other alphabet, which I won’t use as they are very ugly, then better to leave them as they are, like
“dandavat pranama”.

Thanks
– Manonatha Dasa (ACBSP)

Just to say something more, a few months ago I had a discussion with a devotee who told me that Govinda should be spelled Govind, because otherwise it would be feminine.
If you want to use hindi, it is so, but not in sanskrit.

Govinda in the feminine would be Govindā (गिविन्दा). In the masculine it is Govinda (गोविन्द).
As you see the final vowel is different.

Maharaj ji – I am not sure if Govinda is feminine but Krishna certainly is as Krishn is lord Krishn and Krishna refers to Draupadi🙏

Kṛṣṇa is masculine and Kṛṣṇā is feminine. The final vowel is different. In sanskrit it is never written Kṛṣṇ.
From the point of view of diction, the last vowel of Kṛṣṇa should be pronounced with the throat slightly closed, while Kṛṣṇā with the throat opened.

But it’s academy. Not really important for us.

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