Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/268

 258 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. 2 otherwise found in the pronominal declension only. This case is very common, being formed in the RV. from over 500 stems in the m. and 175 in the n., occurring altogether over 3300 times. Among the frequent forms are: m. indrasya (123), súryasya (93), sómasya (88), devásya (60), yajñásya (55), sutásya (53) pressed'; n. rtásya (187), bhúvanasya (39) ‘world', amŕtasya (35) ³. L. m. n. This case is formed with the normal ending -i, which combines with the final -a of the stem to e. It is formed in the RV. from 373 stems in the m., and over 300 in the n., occurring altogether about 2500 times. Among the frequent forms are: m. adhvaré (68) 'sacrifice', suté (53), upá-sthe (49), máde (48), dáme (40) ‘house', indre (33), yajñé (28), jáne (26) ‘man’, grhé (23) 'house'; n. vidáthe (49) 'assembly', ágre (43) 'front', sádane (35) ‘seat', padé (33), duroné (31) ‘abode', mádhye 'middle' (29). V. m. n. In this case the bare stem (always accented on the first syllable) is employed. It is formed in the RV. from about 260 stems, occur- ring about 2500 times in the m.; but in the n. there is no undoubted example. The AV. however has four or five n. vocatives. Among the commonest forms are: m. sóma and soma (240), deva (132), sūra (94) 'hero', pavamāna (63) 'bright Soma', puru-huta (49) ‘much invoked', varuna (45), mitra (35), yavistha (29) 'youngest', vrṣabha (27) ‘bull', ugra (23) 'mighty', amṛta (12)³; n. antarikşa (AV. vi. 1304), tráikakuda 'coming from the three- peaked (mountain)' and dévāñjana (AV. xIx. 44º) ‘divine ointment’, talpa (AV. XII. 24⁹) 'couch', víșa (AV. iv. 6³) 'poison¹7. Du. N. A. V. m. The ending of these cases in the RV. is ordinarily -ā, much less frequently -au8. The former is taken by over 360 stems occurring about 1150 times, the latter by fewer than 90 stems occurring about 170 times. The ending -ā is therefore more than seven times as common as -au. The rule is that -ā appears before consonantsº, in pausa at the end of a Pada ¹º, or within a Pada in coalescence with a following vowel; while -au occurs in the older parts of the RV. only before vowels in the Sandhi form of -av, within a Pada. Examples of this rule are tá vām (1. 184¹); rtivṛdhi | (1. 473b); dasrát¹² (1. 116¹°c) for dasra át; mitrágním (1. 14³) for mitrá agním; but tắv ¹ aparám (1.184¹). Hiatus, when the metre requires two II ¹ The pronominal genitives asya and asyá, | times a various reading for -a of the RV. tásya, yásya, vísvasya occur over 900 times In the independent Mantra portions of the in the RV.; cp. LANMAN 338. TS. there are at least seven forms in -ā and 2 The commonest G. in -sya is the pro- nominal asyá which (accented or unaccented) occurs nearly 600 times in the RV. 3 The final vowel is once nasalized at the end of a Pada in ṛtásyaṁ ékam (VIII. 895); cp. RPr. II. 31. 4 Cp. LANMAN 339. There are two instances of the final -a being nasalized: ugraň ókas (VII. 254) and puru-stutam éko (VIII. 153. 11); cp. RPr. xiv. 20. There is a purely metrical lengthening of the final vowel in vṛṣabhā (VIII. 4522. 38), simā (VIII. 4¹), and hariyojanā (1. 6116); perhaps also maryā (1. 6³); cp. `LANMAN 339. 6 Properly a radical a- stem. 7 By a syntactical peculiarity the N. indras ca is some ten times coupled with a vocative váyo, ágne etc. See LANMAN 340 (top). 8 In the AV. -au is more than twice as common as in the RV.; it is there some- fourteen in -au. In the Khilas -ā is nearly three times (32) as common as -au (12). 9-au occurs 23 times before a consonant within a Pada; mostly in passages showing signs of lateness. Cp. LANMAN 576. 10 -au occurs 5 times at the end of an odd Pada before a consonant; and 4 times as -ãv at the end of an odd Pada before a vowel. At the end of an even Pada -au occurs 4 times. 11 LANMAN 343 enumerates the forms in -au which occur in the RV. 12 At the end of an odd Pada -ā is always written in the Samhita contracted with a following vowel, but must always be read with hiatus. 13 This is the normal use of -au, which in 70 per cent of its occurrences is found as -ãv before a vowel within a Pada; in the AV. the percentage is only 26.