[INDOLOGY] Non-standard sandhi

Wed Mar 20 08:13:12 UTC 2019

Thank you for your suggestion and interest, Jan. It is very refreshing 
to be allowed to discuss the technical meaning of Sanskrit astrological 
texts for once.

Your analysis of my translation is absolutely correct. However, I cannot 
help wondering how you know that the author 'KNEW that 99 percent of his 
contemporaneous readers' would understand /sahita asya/ to represent 
/sahitaḥ asya/ rather than /sahite asya/ (for that, as I understand it, 
is the nub of your argument). But even granting for the sake of argument 
that this should be so, the sense of the verse still requires, in my 
view, that we side with the 1 percent.

Your suggested translation has the ruler of the ascendant:

> there (tatra) [in that house, positively] aspected, or if [the 
> ruler...] is (if not placed in that house, at least) joined 
> (sahita[ḥ]) with it (tena) [with the house],

That is a rather long translation of six short words (tatra ca dṛṣṭe | 
tena vā sahita[ḥ]), and it has the presumed logical subject of the 
clause jumping from the earlier nominative (-patiḥ) to the locative 
(dṛṣṭe) and back again (sahitaḥ). More importantly, though, it conveys 
no real meaning, for a planet being joined with a house means nothing 
more or less than the planet occupying the house. This is a matter not 
only of established meaning (rūḍhi), but of lack of alternatives: what 
else could it mean? So I cannot agree with your suggestion.

Phrases meaning 'joined or aspected by' (often in compounds like 
yutekṣita, dṛṣṭayuk, etc.) are extremely common in astrological texts; 
the two typically go together and refer to the same subject (which may 
be a house, a planet, or some other point in the horoscope). To give 
just one example, consider the following stanza from the same work and 
chapter (12.47):

sute savīrye _śubhayuṅnirīkṣite_ suteśvare kendragate balānvite |
tathaiva sāde sutasaukhyam īritaṃ sutātyayaḥ syād viparītage tathā ||

'If the fifth house is strong, _joined or aspected by benefics_; if the 
ruler of the fifth house, endowed with strength, occupies an angle; and 
if the lot likewise [is strong and benefic], happiness from children is 
declared [as the result]. Likewise, if [all are] conversely situated, 
the death of a child will occur.'

It thus seems more natural to me to take the /sahita/ in /dṛṣṭe ... 
sahita asya/ to represent /sahite /(agreeing with /dṛṣṭe/) than 
/sahitaḥ/, even if we could find a translation to make sense of the 
latter alternative.

Best wishes,
Martin

Den 2019-03-20 kl. 00:12, skrev Jan E.M. Houben:
>
> HOWEVER, if we accept the verse without emendation, should not we read 
> it in the way the author KNEW that 99 percent of his contemporaneous 
> readers would read it?
>
>
> The verse you quoted:
>
> janmalagnapatir uttamavīryo yadgṛhe januṣi tatra ca dṛṣṭe |
> tena vā _sahita asya_ ca labdhis tad yathāṅgasukham abdatanau syāt ||
>
> The translation you proposed (I supply the words on which each part is 
> based, if I understand your analysis and interpretation correctly):
>
> ***
>
> As the meaning is quite technical, I give my translation:
>
> 'If the house in which (yadgṛhe) the ruler of the ascendant of the 
> nativity (janmalagnapatir) is [placed] with excellent strength 
> (uttamavīryo) in the nativity is aspected (tatra ... dṛṣṭe) or (vā) 
> joined by that [ruler] (tena ... *sahite*), [there is] attainment 
> (labdhis) of [the matter signified by] that [house] (asya): for 
> example (tad yathā), [if it is placed] in the ascendant of the year 
> (abdatanau), there will be (syāt) be pleasures of the body (aṅgasukham).'
>
> ***
>
> Now, reading the verse – if specialists familiar with the text agree 
> there is no reason to propose any ad hoc emendation – with similar 
> conceptual interpretations BUT in the way the author KNEW that 99 
> percent of his contemporaneous readers would read it (and paying more 
> attention to the two *ca*’s, and letting both *tatra* and *tena* refer 
> anaphorically to *yadg**ṛ**he*) we get something that perhaps amounts 
> to the same but is based on a different /anvaya/... :
>
> If in a house *(yadgṛhe)* in a nativity (januṣi) the ruler of the 
> ascendant of the nativity (janmalagnapatir) is having excellent 
> strength, *and* *[ca, extending the noun phrase] *is there *(tatra)* 
> [in that house, positively] aspected, or if [the ruler...] is (if not 
> placed in that house, at least) joined (*sahita**[ḥ]*) with it 
> *(tena)* [with the house], then *also [ca, perhaps referring to a 
> statement in a previous verse, other conditions favouring labdhis?]* 
> [there is] attainment of [the matter signified by] that [house] 
> (asya): for example (tad yathā), [if it is placed] in the ascendant of 
> the year (abdatanau), there will be (syāt) pleasures of the body 
> (aṅgasukham).
>
>
> Bottom line: the use of square (and round) brackets is very much 
> required when analysing Sanskrit especially in scientific or 
> philosophical arguments -- as in the publication by Vincent 
> Eltschinger, John Taber, Michael Torsten Much, Isabelle Ratié on 
> /Dharmakīrti’s Theory of Exclusion/ recently announced for "those 
> among you who are still happy with square brackets".
>
>
> Best,
>
> Jan Houben
>
>
> On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 at 20:11, Martin Gansten via INDOLOGY 
> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
>
>     I have a question for the vaiyākaraṇas among us (who may find it
>     very basic, in which case I apologize in advance):
>
>     In the /Tājikayogasudhānidhi /of Yādavasūri (fl. possibly early
>     17th century, possibly in or near Gujarat) there occurs the
>     following stanza (12.15), the form of which is corroborated by
>     several independent witnesses:
>
>     janmalagnapatir uttamavīryo yadgṛhe januṣi tatra ca dṛṣṭe |
>     tena vā _sahita asya_ ca labdhis tad yathāṅgasukham abdatanau syāt ||
>
>     (As the meaning is quite technical, I give my translation: 'If the
>     house in which the ruler of the ascendant of the nativity is
>     [placed] with excellent strength in the nativity is aspected or
>     joined by that [ruler, there is] attainment of [the matter
>     signified by] that [house]: for example, [if it is placed] in the
>     ascendant of the year, there will be pleasures of the body.')
>
>     From the context, the underlined phrase clearly stands for sahite
>     + asya, with e > a. While this is standard sandhi before other
>     vowels, I have never come across it before a. Is there a
>     traditional rule that allows for this?
>
>     Best wishes,
>     Martin Gansten
>
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>
> -- 
>
> *Jan E.M. Houben*
>
> Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology
>
> /Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite/
>
> École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL - Université Paris)
>
> /*Sciences historiques et philologiques */
>
> 54, rue Saint-Jacques, CS 20525 – 75005 Paris
>
> /johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr 
> <mailto:johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr>/
>
> /johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu <mailto:johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>/
>
> /https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben/
>

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