deriv LSK ETT STT aSTA ALPH OLDHOMEPAGE NEWHOMEPAGE
The letters r R S RR रृ षॄ curl the tongue tip a bit up and a bit backwards and LEAVE IT HALF RAISED. Those are unlike the letters T Th D Dh N ट्ठ्ड्ढ्ण्, which curl the tongue throatwards and inmediately move it forward down again.
The tongue-tip will stay a bit curled up until the word ends, or the tongue-tip is needed elsewhere. Unless, of course, the first one that needs tongue-tip is na न nA ना ni नि... — in that case saying Na ण is easier than saying na न, by the laziness principle.
So in the following word, the tongue-tip goes up at the r र्, and stays a bit up until the na न of the affix mAna मान, which changes into Na ण even though the letters amamA अममा come in between:
krama- क्रमॱ + -mAna- ॱमानॱ + su सु → kramamANaH क्रममाणः
Anciently people did this automatically without thinking, just because they were lazy. We have to train ourselves to do it, however. Because if we don't, we will misspell things, and if we mispell things, gadgets like the inria reader will choke on our mispelled *vIkSamAnena वीक्षमानेन — it is vIkSamANena वीक्षमाणेन or bust!
The trick to learn to do this always is simple. Just don't read silently when you study Sanskrit — always chant zlokas aloud. While doing so, get used to NOT move your tongue down after r र् R ऋ S ष्, and to ALWAYS move it down after T Th D Dh N ट्ठ्ड्ढ्ण्.
Some examples for practice. Your tongue is supposed to curl up at the point marked with (^), and to go flat forward at the (_):
gu^ruN_A
^rAmeN_A
lak^SmaN_ena
k^RSN_aH
maha^RSIN_Am
vIk^SamAN_aH
santa^rpaN_am
tapas svAdhyAya ni^ra_tan tapasvI vAgvidAM va^raH_ |
nA^ra_dam pa^ripapra_ccha valmIki^r _muni puGgavam ||