Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 305

296
Amrita
.
and is duly noted by the Prātiśākhya. Oldenberg simply leaves aside all these cases, calling them as merely a whimsical activity of the redactors and then comes to the plausible conclusion that in the majority of the cases of the latter half of the X Mandala, the writing shows a fair approximation to the actual pronunciation. The writers of the Vedic Variants suggest that the sandhi was indicated here, as there was no possibility of confusion in the pronunciation. Obviously both the explanations are not satisfactory and the attempt to bring together the pronunciation and the writing in agreement, by neglecting this majority of cases of the discrepancy, cannot be acceptable. In the I Mandala there are 60 cases of this sandhi in the interior of a pāda, while there are as many as 108 cases at the Pāda-end. In the III Mandala the cases are 12 in the middle of the Pāda' and 40 at the end. In the IX Mandala 2 the cases are 14 to 68. Even among the cases where the loss of a is indicated in the middle of the Pāda, we find in the I M. the initial a. read in 41 cases as against 19 where it is lost in pronunciation 13. The figures for the III M. are 11 where a- is pronounced as against 1 where it is lost in pronunciation as well : for the IX M. q- is pronounced in 11 cases, while it is silent in three cases. As against this we may set the figures of Oldenberg for Mandala X 90- end; where in 19 cases a- is correctly lost, while in 22 it must be pronounced in spite of the writing. The explanation of this difference can only be found in the fact that in the X Mandala this sandhi had come into greater vogue.
If it is admitted that the guiding principle in these cases, at least at the beginning, was not the actual pronunciation, we must find it in the nature of the final vowels e and o, and naturally in their length. It is quite obvious that these vowels at the end of the Pada must necessarily be long, and thus require the elision of the following a- irrespective of the fact that it is to be pronounced or not. In other words, the original principle which guided the observance of this sandhi in some cases and not in others must have been the quantity of the final e and o, whether long or short. As their value is uniformly long at the end of the Pāda, the elision of the a- in such cases is naturally the rule, and the question whether a- in these cases is to be pronounced or not is immaterial. If this is true, we should expect no exceptions to it, and except for three isolated cases already noticed by the Prātiśākhya, the rule is uniformly observed. Even the three exceptional cases - show some peculiar features which explain the absence of the sandhi. The cases are :
.