[INDOLOGY] help with strange term: nabviṣaya

[Sharon Ben-Dor]

Dear McComas,

The term 'nap' denotes neuter gender. Sāyaṇa comments that, on the basis of phiṭ sūtra 2.3 नब्विषयस्यानिसन्तस्य (“the first vowel of neuter words has high pitch, except for words that end with ‘is’”), the first vowel of the word has udātta.

Yours,
Sharon






On Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 07:38:14 AM GMT+3, McComas Taylor via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote: 







Dear Colleagues




I am enjoying reading Sāyaṇa's commentary to the Ṛgveda with a group of friends. We are stuck on a term nabviṣayatvāt , a property that causes accentuation of an initial syllable.




It occurs in the second last line in the commentary on 1.11.7 and in the sixth line of the commentary to 1.11.8 here:




https://archive.org/details/RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart1/page/n137/mode/1up




We can't find anything under nab-, nap-, nabh-, naph- or nav- in any of the usual sources. -bv- is such an odd combination.




What does nabviṣaya mean? What is the derivation?




Any guidance gratefully received.




Yours,




McComas











McComas Taylor, Emeritus Professor of SanskritSchool of Culture, History and LanguageCollege of Asia and Pacific, Australian National UniversitySecretary-General, International Assoc. of Sanskrit Studies







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