[INDOLOGY] Sandhi breaks in longer meters

[victor davella]

Dear All,

The verse  (with some minor variations) usually cited in grammatical works
is:

pade tu saṃhitā nityā nityā dhātūpasargayoḥ |
samāse ca tathā vākye sā vivakṣām apekṣate ||

The text given is the earliest attestation I have found, the Rūpāvatāra (p.
6, beginning of the Saṃhitāvatāra).

The optional sandhis are those at word boundaries, including between
members of a compound, but not within a word or between a root and its
upasarga. This maxim is at times invoked to explain irregular sandhis in
Epic/purāṇic texts. Avivakṣā, however, is not a valid justification for
failing to apply sandhi in verse according the authorities on poetry. Cf.
Kāvyādarśa 3.159 (Dimitrov's edition).

A look at the various discussions of visandhi, a poetic blemish, will also
reveal a number of interesting discussions about the application of sandhi
in verse. For example, in commenting on KĀ 3.161, Ratnaśrījñāna explains
that the lack of sandhi between the 2nd and 3rd pādas in KA 3.161 (api /
āsu) should not be viewed as fault. He further bolsters his/Daṇḍin's view
by citing a verse from the Abhijñāśākuntala 1.19 (tanoti  /  iyam). Similar
statements are found in other works. There is also a rather lengthy back
and forth between ālaṅkārikas over the ages concerning the correctness of
using perfectly valid pragṛhya sandhis (duel endings in ī, ū, and e follwed
by a vowel) ,but it is perhaps not of immediate interest.

All the Best,
Victor D'Avella


On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 4:46 PM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> Yes, Jonathan, the external sandhi is optional according to grammarians,
> and yet the convention of metrical Sanskrit is that the sandhis are pretty
> much obligatory.  The break in Sandhi comes after the half-verse or
> ardha-ṛc in Vedic verses.  Only rarely is there a sandhi break within a
> metrical line.  On the other hand, there are hyper or double sandhis
> occasionally in older metrical texts, e.g. saḥ + eṣaḥ > sa eṣaḥ, but
> metrically occasionally one notices saiṣa, and Pāṇini allows such double
> sandhis for filling the metrical space (so'ci lope cet pādapūraṇam).
> Breaking the sandhis in metrical lines is done as part of interpretation,
> but not as part of recitation, since with broken sandhis, the metrical
> lines are no longer complaint with rules of a specific meter.
>
> Madhav Deshpande
>
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I hardly dare to comment when my teacher, Madhav Deshpande, is on this
>> list as well, and what little I know I know from him, but.... I recall very
>> well learning that external sandhi is, according to the grammarians, always
>> optional.
>> Because
>> One
>> Can
>> Always
>> Speak
>> Like
>> This
>> If
>> One
>> Wants
>> To.
>> In other words, the use of sandhi is a convention, so the question might
>> be slightly rephrased as: what are the conventions of the poets, and of the
>> scribes. No?
>> (Perhaps, as is quite likely, of course, this was implied in the
>> question, and I should have kept my ideas to myself.
>> In
>> Which
>> Case,
>> Sorry ;)
>>
>> Jonathan
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 4:26 PM, Valerie Roebuck <
>> vjroebuck at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Correction: I meant ‘at the end of one line’.
>>>
>>> > I’ve just had a quick look at an edition of the Saundaryalaharī, in
>>> Śikhariṇī (17 syllables to a line), and sandhi is broken only between half
>>> verses and whole verses. For example, there's a ś  at the end of one
>>> half-line followed by a c at the beginning of the next.
>>>
>>> Valerie J Roebuck
>>> Manchester, UK
>>>
>>> > On 28 Jul 2016, at 15:07, Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Dear list members,
>>> >
>>> > In the longer sanskrit meters (Vasantatilaka for examplbe 14 syllables
>>> to a line) is Sandhi broken after each line or only after the half verse
>>> and end of verse.
>>> >
>>> > Thank you,
>>> > Vasishtha
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> J. Silk
>> Leiden University
>> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
>> 2311 BZ Leiden
>> The Netherlands
>>
>> copies of my publications may be found at
>> http://www.buddhismandsocialjustice.com/silk_publications.html
>>
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