[INDOLOGY] unsandhied juncture

[Harry Spier]

To give a more modern example of non-strict adherence to sandhi rules and
of use of anusvara for nasals  see page ix of the introduction to Apte's
"The Student's English-Sanskrit Dictionary.

[image: image.png]

An example:
[image: image.png]

Harry Spier


On Sat, Aug 1, 2026 at 4:24 AM Evgeniya Desnitskaya via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Dominik and all,
>
> While working recently on a Navya-nyāya MS, I came across a similar
> situation. In addition to obvious sandhi errors and hiatuses within
> sentences, there was another issue. The MS is written as a single period,
> so on order to identify different sentences I had to break the original
> sandhis on their boundaries.
> In my transliteration, I chose to indicate these corrections using a
> specific type of brackets.
>
> Though, for the convenience of the reader, would it be better just to
> correct the text without further indications?
>
> This lack of daṇḍas in the text and hiatuses inside sentences made me
> wonder in what manner the scribes traditionally worked. Did they write
> under dictation, this representing a monotonous speech with occasional
> pauses?
>
> Best,
> Evgeniya
> --
> Отправлено из мобильного приложения Яндекс Почты
>
> *Кому:* "Jan E.M. Houben" <jemhouben at gmail.com>;
> *Копия:* Indology <indology at list.indology.info>;
> *Тема:* [INDOLOGY] unsandhied juncture;
> 13:30, 19 июля 2026 г., Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info>:
>
> I think "the condition saṃhitāyām" mentioned by Jan, and implicitly by
> Jonathan, is the key.  Authors and reciters have had different allegiances,
> so to speak, to this rule, but it's clear enough that for Pāṇini, sandhi
> rules were conditional upon contiguous speech.  Letters transform when they
> touch each other, sonically, not when they do. not (nobody says "do.  n't").
>
> In the Nepalese MSS that I've been working with over the last few years,
> dating from ninth-sixteenth centuries, there is a variety of scribal (or
> spoken?) usage in all the directions that have been mentioned.  Very often
> there is an anusvāra at the end of a śloka, suggesting rapid recitation
> with the following śloka.  Sometimes, but more rarely, there are hiatuses
> inside a sentence.  And so on.  The attitude to sandhi application seems
> quite variable.  I'm sorry to say, however, that I haven't kept note of
> these variations.
>
> Best wishes,
> Dominik
>
> --
> Dominik Wujastyk, Professor Emeritus, Classical Indian History
> University of Alberta
>
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>
> Current research: The Suśruta Project <http://sushrutaproject.github.io>
> Journal: History of Science in South Asia <http://hssa-journal.org>
>
>
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