Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/126

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. jágm-i- 'hastening' (gam- ‘go'), jághn-i- 'striking' ( √ han-), sásn-i- “winning'; jágur-i- 'conducting' (Vgr-), tátur-i- 'victorious' (√tr-), pápur-i- and púpur-i- (SV.) 'bestowing abundantly' (pr-) beside pápri; with lengthened or strong reduplicative vowel: tátrp-i- ‘gladdening', dádhṛṣ-i- ‘bold, vávah-i- 'driving swiftly', sasah-i- 'victorious'; tutuj-i- 'speeding', tutuj-í- m. 'stimulator', yuyuv-i- 'driving away', yuyudh-i- 'warlike'; jarbhár-i- 'nourishing' (ybhr-). The weak reduplicated present stem appears in dad-i- 'giving' and dádh-i- 'bestowing'; from similar stems (appearing in the perfect) are formed pap-i 'drinking' (V pā-) and yay-i 'speeding' (√yā-). II6 a. There are only about half a dozen neuters formed with the suffix -i, nearly all being obscure in origin. They are áks-i- 'eye', ásth-i- (AV. VS.) 'bone', dádh-i- 'sour milk', sám-i- 'toil' (sam- 'work'); and with Vrddhi hard-i- 'heart'. b. The root is sometimes compounded with verbal prefixes in these derivatives, the suffix being then usually accented; thus aján-i- f. 'birth', ví-vavr-i- m. ‘opening', sam-tan-i- f. 'harmony', 'music', ā-yaj-i- 'bringing near by offerings', a-múr-i- m. 'destroyer, ni-jaghn-i- 'striking down', para-dad-i- 'delivering over', vi-ṣāsah-i- 'victorious', vy-anas-i- 'pervading'. 2 c. From dha- 'put' is derived the stem -dhi- which is used in forming many m. compounds; e. g. antar-dhi- (AV.) ‘concealment', ud-dhí- (AV.), part of a car, ni-dhi- 'treasure', pari-dhi- 'fence'. From stha 'stand' is similarly formed -sthi in prati-sthi- f. 'resistance'. There is here some doubt as to whether we have a reduced form of the root (as in dhi-ta-) or displacement of the radical vowel by the very frequent suffix--i. The latter alternative is perhaps the more probable owing to the almost invariable accentuation of the i and the occurrence of a stem like prati-sthi- 'resistance' beside prati- stha- 'standpoint'. -in : agent. 132. The very frequent secondary suffix -in seems sometimes to have the value of a primary suffix, exclusively, however, at the end of compounds; thus -ad-in-'eating',-es-in-(AV.) 'seeking', -tod-in- 'piercing', á-nam-in- 'unbending', -vyādh-in- (AV.) 'piercing'; from a present stem -as-nuv-in- (VS.) 'reaching'; from an aorist stem -saks-in-3 overpowering (Vsah-); from a reduplicated stem yay-in- 'going'4. -iştha: agent. 133. With this suffix attached to the root is formed the superlative with an adjectival sense. The root is regularly accented 5, 7 and ž taking Guna, while a remains unchanged, though in two or three instances it is strengthened with a nasal. Roots in -a combine that vowel with the initial -i of the suffix to e, which, however, is usually to be read as two syllables. About fifty superlatives formed with this suffix occur in the Samhitās. Examples are: náy-iştha- 'leading in the best manner' (nī- ‘leaď), jáv-iṣṭha- 'quickest' (jū- ‘speed’), véd-istha- 'procuring most' (vid- 'find'), soc-istha- 'most brilliant' (suc- 'shine'); yáj-istha- 'sacrificing best'; bámh-istha- 'most abundant' (bamh- ¹ The words bámbhār-i- (VS.) m., a soma- 4 In ni-yay-in- 'passing over'. Cp. LINDNER guarding genius, karkar-i- f. lute', dundubh-i-p. 59; WHITNEY 1183 a. m. 'drum' may be onomatopoetic in origin. 5 Except two or three times jyesthá- and 2 From the perfect stem an-aś- of af- kan-isthá- (see above p. 83, 14); and when 'attain'. the superlative is compounded with a prefix, which then has the accent. 3 In pra-saks-in- 'victorious'.