Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

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BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
account of the additional prefix ni in it, the word abhinihita expresses the idea of 'merging', which is stronger than 'close combination expressed by the terms samhita Οι αίwίδditi.
The Avestan word gravas was understood by Bartholomae (Wörterbuch, col. 529) as acc.pl. of grab 'sentence' (Satz). But, again, following Geldner, he chose to take it as nom.sg. of grava 'stick'. He, however, preferred to translate gravas in our passage as 'support' (Stütze) instead of adopting Geldner's rendering 'Stab'(Z. altir. Wb. p. 176). Lommel (ZII 3. p. 170) accepted the interpretation of Geldner but preferred to look upon gravas as acc.sg. of an -s stem. K. Hoffmann (Henning Volume pp. 197-198) argues for the original' reading *gravūsca<*gravāsca in place of gravasca. He looks upon the form *gravā as acc.pl. of the a stem. As to the meaning he is prepared to accept Geldner's suggestion 'Stab' but thinks that the original meaning of the word was 'handle' (Griff).
But, as shown above, if aiwidāiti could mean 'close recitation (of the words of the mantra)', the possibility of gravas referring to something similar in nature, i.e. to some kind of recitation of the mantra, has to be considered. It is well known that the Vedic text is recited in the samhitāpātha, as mentioned above, and also in the padapātha, i.e. by separating the padas 'the words' from one another. This separation of the words in the padapātha was apparently known as vigraha. Further, within a pada, analysis of complex forms into its constituents was shown by observing a pause between the constituents. This separation is known as avagraha. Whitney on the Atharva-Prātisākhya 4.78 observes:
Vigrhya denotes a word which is altogether independent, and therefore disjoined from others in the pada-text, a nanapada, in distinction from avagrhya, which means 'divisible into its constituents (purvapada and uttarapada), as a compound'.
According to the Taittiriya-prātiśākhya 22.13, which calls these pauses by a common name virāma, the pause between the two padas, viz. the vigraha, is of the duration of two morae (dvimātrah), while the one between the two constituents of a pada, viz. the avagraha, is of the duration of one mora (ekamātrah). It may further be noted that in Sanskrit we have the words pragraha and praghya which are used with reference to the vowels pronounced separately i.e. which are not subject to the rules of euphonic combination.
Avestan gravas can be taken as an acc.plur. of a root noun grab (Bartholomae, Wörterbuch) or of an a-derivative grava (Hoffmann, Henning Memorial Volume). In both cases it belongs to the root grab., corresponding to Skt grah-/grabh-. Just as the Sanskrit derivatives vigraha, avagraha and pragraha indicate different kinds of 'separation', the Avestan noun can mean 'holding apart, separation (of words and their constituents in recitation), observing pauses (between words and their constituents in recitation)'.
Madhu Vidyā/201