In the traditional Devanagari transliteration scheme, many words and names have a final "a" appended to them, derived from the original Sanskrit. This final 'inherent a' is often no longer pronounced in modern Sanskrit-derived Indian languages, leading to an alternative, 'modern' transliteration that omits it.

• Traditional: Mahabharata, Ramayana, Shiva
• Modern: Mahabharat, Ramayan, Shiv

Some words however retain the final a, because they would be very difficult to say without it:

• Traditional: Krishna, vajra, Maurya
• Modern: Krishna, vajra, Maurya

Wikipedia uses the spelling with the appended 'a' for words that are widely known among English speakers, even though it is inconsistent with common pronunciation of many modern languages.

Where the letter "h" appears after a plosive consonant in Devanagari transliteration, it always indicates aspiration, thus "ph" is pronounced as the p in "pit" (with a small puff of air released as it is said) never as the ph in "photo". On the other hand "p" is pronounced as the p in "spit" with no release of air. Similarly "th" is an aspirated "t", neither the th of "this" or the th of "thin".

See also: IAST, National Library at Calcutta romanization