Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/26

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. VEDIC GRAMMAR. grade, but early began to supplant e; thus from dīv- 'play', beside didéva (AV.), dév-ana- 'game of dice', occur dív-yati, div-é and div-i dat. and loc. of div- 'game of dice'; from srīv- 'fail', beside śreváyant-, srīvayati (AV.); but from miv- 'push', only mív-ati etc.; from siv- 'sew', only siv-yati etc. It is a peculiarity of these roots that appears before vowels and y only, becoming yū or u before other consonants; thus dyū-tá- (AV.) 'play'; -mu-ta- 'impelled', mu-rá- ‘dull’, mú-tra- (AV. VS.) 'urine'; syi-tá- 'fastened', sü-ci- 'needle', st-tra- (AV.) 'thread'; sri- 'lead ball'¹. 16 II. The Samprasāraṇa* series. a. Gradation of ya va ra. 23. Low grade: i u p³.-In place of the accented syllables ya va ra (corresponding to the Guna vowels e o ar) appear the low grade vowels i ut when the accent shifts to the following syllable in some fourteen roots, viz. yaj- 'sacrifice', vyac- 'extend', vyadh- 'pierce', vac- 'speak', vad- 'speak', vap- 'strew, vas- 'be eager', vas- 'dwell', vas- 'shine', vah- 'carry'; svap- 'sleep', grabh- and grah- 'seize', pracch- (properly praś-) ‘ask', vraśc- ‘hew'; e. g. iş-tá-:yás-țave; uś-mási : vás-ți; suṣup-váms- : suṣvápa. a. Besides these, a good many other roots, in occasional verbal forms or nominal derivatives, show the same gradation in the radical syllable. 1. i appears in mimikṣúr: mimyákṣa perf. of Vmyaks-; vithura- 'wavering', vithuryá ti 'wavers', beside vyáth-ate 'wavers'. 2. u in ukṣant- 'growing' : vavákṣa 'has grown'; suș-ánt- : śvas-iti ‘breathes'; ju-hur-as: hvár-ati 'is crooked'; ur-ú- 'broad': comp. vár-īyas-, superl. vár-istha-; dúr- : dvár- 'door'; dhun-i- 'resounding" : dhvan-í- (AV.) ‘sound'. 3. in krpate ‘laments': aor. akrapiṣṭa; grṇatti (AV.): grath-itá- ‘tieď'; -śrth-ita- : śrath-nāti 'becomes loose'; rj-ú- 'straight': ráj-iṣṭha- 'straightest'; rbh-ú- 'adroit': rábh-ate ‘grasps'; drh-ya 'be firm' (impv.): drah-yát ‘firmly'; prth-ú- 'broad': práth-ati 'spreads out'; bhrm-á- 'error': bhram-d- whirling flame'; d-ni-bhṛṣ-ta- 'undefeated': bhras-at aor., bhraș-țá- (AV.) 'fallen'; mrd-- 'soft': mrada 'soften' (impv.), úrna-mradas- 'soft as wool'; sýk-van- : srák-va- 'corner of the mouth'. b. This gradation also appears in the stems of a few nouns and in certain nominal suffixes: dyú-bhis: dyáv-i loc., dyáu-s nom. 'heaven'; sún- : śvá-, śván- 'dog'; yin- (=yú-un-): yuva-, yúvan- 'youth'; catúr-: catvár- 'four'; the superlative and comparative suffixes -is-tha and yas; the perf. part. suffix -us: -vat, -vāms 5. b. Gradation of yā vā rā. ī 24. Low grade: 7 ū ir.-Corresponding to the reduction of the short syllables ya va ra to the short vowels i u r, the long syllables yā vā rā appear as ī ū ir (— IE. 7). 2 In the terminology of the native gramma- rians Samprasāraṇa ('distraction') designates the change of the semi-vowel only to the corresponding vowel (but see also Paņini VI. 1, 108). Here we use the word to express | Cp. PEDERSEN, IF. 2, 323, note. the reduction of the entire syllables ya va ra to the corresponding vowels i u r. ¹ The etymology of this word is, how-to suppose that every i and has a similar ever, doubtful. Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 81. origin. On the contrary, it is more likely that IE. i and u have been preserved by the side of the reduced vowels and that the Guņa grade has in many instances been subsequently added to original i and 4 This reduction goes back to the IE. pre- tonic syncope ofě o: cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 62 3 Though? seems invariably to have (p. 69, mid.). On the two forms of the roots resulted from the reduction of Guņa or cp. also Nirukta IL. 2 and Mahābhāṣya 1, 112. Samprasāraṇa syllables, there is no reason 5 See WACKERNAGEL I, 63.