Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/431

 VIII. INDECLINABLES. PREPOSITIONAL ADVERBS. ádhi) then disappears, leaving only the ablative sense 'from'; e. g. tvám adbhyás tvám áśmanas pári .. jayase (II. 1¹) 'thou art born from the waters, from the rock'. purás 'before'. 607. Adverbially purás is combined with kr- 'do', and dha 'put' only, in the sense of 'in front'; e. g. indraḥ kṛṇotu prasavé rathám puráḥ (1.102⁹) 'may Indra place (our) car in front in the enterprise'; indram vísve deváso dadhire puráḥ (1. 131¹) 'the all-gods placed Indra in the forefront'. Adnominally purás occurs about nine times in the RV., in the sense of 'before' and connected with the accusative, the ablative, and the locative; e. g. ásadan mātáram puráḥ (x. 189¹) he has sat down before his mother'; ná gardabhám puró áśvan nayanti (111.53²³) 'they do not place the ass before the horse' (áśvāt); yáḥ sýñjaye puró. . samidhyáte (IV. 154) 'who is kindled before Srnjaya'. 42 1 práti 'against'. 608. Used adverbially práti means 'towards', 'against', e. g. práti i go towards or against'; práti ma- 'counterfeit', 'imitate'. From this sense the notion of equality was developed, as in práti as- be a match för'; e. g. indra, nákis tvā práty asty esām, víśvā jātány abhy àsi táni (VI.255) 'O Indra, none of them is equal to thee; thou art superior to all these beings'. The verb as often being omitted, práti appears to be used like an adjective; e. g. indram ná mahná pṛthiví caná práti (1.55¹) 'not even the earth (is) equal to Indra in greatness'. The preposition further comes to express adverbially the sense of 'back'; e. g. práti uh- 'thrust back'; práti brū- 'reply'. 2 Adnominally práti is used with the accusative only, altogether about a dozen times in the RV. With verbs of motion ² or of calling it means 'towards', 'to' (though here there is sometimes a doubt whether it does not rather belong to the verb); e.g. práti tyám cárum adhvarám gopithaya prá hūyase (1. 19¹) 'thou art summoned to the beloved sacrifice to drink the milk'. With verbs of protecting it means 'against' 'from'; e. g. ágne rákṣā no ámhasah, práti sma, deva, risataḥ (vII. 15¹3) 'O Agni, protect us from distress, against injurers, O god'. Sometimes it means 'over against', 'opposite'; e. g. ábodhy agnih .. práti .. práti .. ayatím uşásam (v. 1¹) 'Agni has awakened in face of the coming Dawn'. It expresses conformity in the phrase práti váram 'according to desire' (cp. ánu b, úpa a, a). a. In the phrase práti vástoḥ at dawn', occurring three times in the RV., the pre- position seems to take the ablative, but vástoḥ may here be meant for an adverbial form ³. B. Adnominal Prepositions. = 609. This class of words which is never compounded with verbs, but only governs oblique cases (with the exception of the dative), cannot be clearly distinguished from adverbs such as urdhvám (which from B. onwards is also used as a preposition with the ablative in the sense of 'above' and 'after'). It is to be noted that several of them govern the genitive and the instrumental, cases practically never connected with the genuine prepositions in the Samhitas. The following is an account of these words arranged in their alphabetical order4. I Both abhi and práti primarily express | with verbs of motion: here it expresses ap- direction towards', but the former tends to proximate position 'about', 'at', 'on'; it imply superiority or attack (at), the latter also means in regard to', 'in equality with'. comparison and equality or repulsion ('back'). 3 Cp. BR., and DELBRÜCK p. 463. 4 Though several of these (avás, äré, 2 In B. práti is regularly used after the accusative, though apparently never connected parás, sácă, sanitúr, sanutár, samáyā, sumád, =