Skt. Grammar Query

[Gary Tubb]

   Michael Sweet has asked about the meaning of a line in the
Siddhanta-Kaumudi (on Pa. 6.3.75) left untranslated by Vasu.  In
the query some words were inadvertently left out of the line as
quoted; the full version is "na stri puman napumsakam
stri-pumsayoh [the space after "stri" in Vasu is incorrect]
pumsakabhavo nipatanat."
   The first part of this, "na stri puman napumsakam," is a
gloss of the compound "na-pumsaka": neither feminine nor
masculine = neuter.  The rest answers the question of how
"na-pumsaka" can mean "neither feminine nor masculine" rather
than simply "not masculine," since "pumsaka" should mean only
"masculine."  To put it the other way around, why is the word
not "na-stri-pumsaka"?  The answer is "stri-pumsayoh
pumsakabhavo nipatanat": (in the word "napumsaka" both) feminine
and masculine are "pumsaka" because of nipatana (i.e., just
because Panini gives the word in the form "napumsaka").
   Or at least that's my guess.

               Gary Tubb.