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
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Courses: Learn about some of my courses:  Sanskrit 1  |  Indian Epics