Re: [INDOLOGY] aḥ + a in a compound?

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

28 04 13
Dear
Colleague,
The
avagraha originated in the language of the orally transmitted Vedas before the
introduction of writing. It meant ‘separation’  that is to say it was not necessarily a sandhi-phenomenon
and had one mora duration. The last component of a compound (barring the dvandva) was separated with
avagraha in padapāṭha and of two words in abhinihita sandhi even outside the
padapāṭha.  
Unlike
in the Vedas the avagraha has no phonetic value or linguistic function in
Classical Sanskrit where it is a graphic convention, an apostrophe, to mark the
coalescing of the initial a- of a word into the final e- of the preceding word
in abhinihita sandhi. Thus, it is understood as a sandhi rule in Cl. Sanskrit
which it originally was not. And, as far as I know, there is no rule in grammar
for its use. Pāṇini
uses the word avagraha in its Vedic sense. 
I have
no manuscript of the Gītā with me at present. Interested persons may check the
reading mama tejoṃśasambhavam Gītā 10.41 from manuscripts. The printed
editions with me have the avagraha. But, unfortunately, faithful presentation
of manuscript reading is not a strong point of many editors. The critical apparatus
of the BORI Edition (ed. Edgerton) too may be consulted. 
Best
DB



________________________________
 From: McComas Taylor <McComas.Taylor at anu.edu.au>
To: indology <indology at list.indology.info> 
Sent: Sunday, 28 April 2013 12:25 PM
Subject: [INDOLOGY] aḥ + a in a compound?
 


Dear Scholars

Can you help me out with a sandhi problem that arose in class the other day?

Raghuvaṁśa  1.14

sarvatejobhibhavinā 

The commentary glosses this as 

sarvāṇi bhūtāni tejasā abhibhavati iti sarvatejobhāvī tena sarvatejobhibhavinā 

The translation is something like 'by one who surpasses all in tejas'

External sandhi rules apply to words in compounds, e.g.

manas + hara = manohara

Therefore with  tejas + abhibhāvin  normally one would expect tejo'bhibhāvin (aḥ + a = o + ')

But in the root text and the commentary avagraha is not shown. In fact, as far as I know, there is no such thing as an avagraha in a compound.

Prof Greg Bailey kindly provided a number of other similar examples from Mbh, so this form is not particularly uncommon.

Does anyone know of a rule or a convention that covers this form?  Put it another way, how should the combination aḥ + a be handled within a compound?

Yours

McC

--
________________________________
McComas Taylor,  ANU University Education Scholar 2012-13
Head, South Asia Program
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Tel: +61 2 6125 3179
Location: Baldessin Precinct Building, 4.24
Website: McComas Taylor
________________________________
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