Dear Philipp and Krishnapad,
Whitney remarks on page 9 of his Sanskrit Grammar:
16.a. A sign called the avagraha (separator) — namely — is occasionally used in the manuscripts, sometimes in the manner of a hyphen, sometimes as a mark of hiatus, sometimes to mark the elision of initial अ a after final ए e or ओ o (135). In printed texts, especially European, it is ordinarily applied to the use last mentioned, and to that alone:thus तेऽब्रुवन् te’bruvan सोऽब्रवीत् so’bravīt for ते अब्रुवन् te abruvan सो अब्रवीत् so abravīt.
So even Whitney acknowledges that the manuscripts do not use avagrahaḥ regularly. Incidentally, the avagrahaḥ in the copper plate inscription is an instance, in Whitney’s terminology, of a hyphen. The text reads: vā’numodeta.
My own somewhat limited experience in reading manuscripts is that avagrahaḥ rarely appears. I have seen it in devanāgarī and proto-mathilī or proto-bāṅgla manuscripts. I wonder if there are any studies about the use of avagrahaḥ in manuscripts other than padapāṭhaḥ manuscripts. I have a sense that sometimes avagrahaḥ is introduced into a manuscript copying tradition as a reader’s aid to interpretation.s
Elliot
Dear Dr. Philipp A. Maas
I was unaware of this. Thanks for the information.
Dear
Krishnaprasad,
It would be
interesting to know the first attestation for the use of avagraha in
manuscripts and inscriptions. According to G. Bühler, the oldest attestation of
an avagraha used for the elision of a can be found of a copper plate
inscription of the Rāṣṭrakūta king Dhruva from 834/5 CE (Indische Palaeographie, p. 86). This reference may, of course, not
represent the latest state of research.
Best,
Philipp
__________________________
Dr. Philipp A. Maas
Research Associate
Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften
Universität Leipzig
___________________________
https://spp1448.academia.edu/PhilippMaas
This avagrahava is very very modern. In Mahabhasya Patanjali writes for भ्यसो भ्यम् as किमयं भ्यंशब्दः अहोस्विद् अभ्यम् शब्दः
कुतः सन्देहः ? समानो निर्देशः।
And even in the time of Bhattoji Dikshita was not used.
For समुदाङ्भ्यो यमोग्रन्थे he comments, अग्रन्थे इतिच्छेदः।
And there is a commentary on Bhagavatam by Satyadharmatirtha he is 250 years back. Even he writes such.
So no difference in pronunciation.
KP
Dear Harry,
You have raised an interesting question. The term avagraha is used in older texts like the Prātiśākhyas and Śikṣās to refer to a pause between members of compounds in the Padapāṭha, and some texts like the Śaunakīya-Caturādhyāyikā (3.3.35: ऋगर्धर्चपदान्तावग्रहविवृत्तिषु मात्राकाल: काल:) assign the duration of a mātrā to this type of avagraha. The written sign of avagraha (ऽ) in later times got extended to cases like ततोऽपि and एतेऽपि, and yet I have not seen evidence for this extension in any of the phonetic texts, and to my knowledge there is no actual pause in recitation in these cases. Such a pause would create difficulties with the meters. How, when and why the term avagraha and the written sign (ऽ) got extended to such uses needs to be investigated. But it has no phonetic value as far as I know.
Madhav
Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus
Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan
[Residence: Campbell, California]
How are avagrahas considered in metrical verses?
Is --- sahite 'sya --- pronounced as if it was --- sahite sya --- or is there a slight pause for the avagraha?
Harry Spier
Thanks to Madhav Deshpande, Andrey Klebanov and Harry Spier for
their (off-list) replies to my question, confirming that the sandhi
e + a > a a is indeed non-standard. Madhav wrote:
I have not seen another example exactly like this, and have
not come across a traditional rule to deal with this. I
wonder how hybrid this text is, or whether there are
manuscript variants for this particular passage. One thing I
noticed is that if we keep the presumed pre-sandhi reading of
"sahite asya," the meter does not work, and neither does it
work with the regular sandhi "sahite 'sya." The meter does
seem to work with "sahita asya". The last syllable of
"sahita" needs to be metrically light. So I suppose some sort
of metrical compulsion may have resulted in this
irregularity. Just a thought.
The work in question is a largish one (~550 stanzas) and written in
perfectly grammatical, sometimes even elegant Sanskrit in a variety
of metres, with no particular suggestion of being hybrid, and the
witnesses I have seen (two of the work itself, and half a dozen of
another work quoting the verse in question) all agree on the reading
of this passage.
Harry raised the same point about the metre (svāgatā), but it
wouldn't be difficult to rephrase the pāda so as to conform to both
metre and standard sandhi (e.g., tena vāpi sahite 'sya ca labdhis).
So I am left with the impression that Yādavasūri must have
considered his choice of sandhi in this case unproblematic, although
he usually follows the stardard rule
e + a > e ['].
Thanks again,
Martin
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