Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1048

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
cxix
two syllables must be treated as one, belongs, I believe, to Professor Bollensen in his article, ‘Zur Herstellung des Veda,' published in Bensey's Orient und Occident, vol. ii, p. 461. He proposed, for instance, to write hyână instead of hiyana, IX, 13,6; dhyânó instead of dhiyano, VIII, 49, 5; sáhyase instead of sáhîyase, I, 71, 4; yânó instead of iyânó, VIII, 50, 5, &c. The actual alteration of these words seems to me unnecessary; nor should we think of resorting to such violent measures in Greek where, as far as metrical purposes are concerned, two vowels have not unfrequently to be treated as one.
That iva counts in many passages as one syllable is admitted by everybody. The only point on which I differ is that I do not see why iva, when monosyllabic, should be changed to va, instead of being pronounced quickly, or, to adopt the terminology of Greek grammarians, by synizesis". Synizesis is well explained by Greek scholars as a quick pronunciation of two vowels so that neither should be lost, and as different thereby from synalæphe, which means the contraction of two vowels into one b. This synizesis is by no means restricted to iva and a few other words, but seems to me a very frequent expedient resorted to by the ancient Rishis.
Originally it may have arisen from the fact that language allows in many cases alternate forms of one or two syllables. As in Greek we have double forms like åleyelvós and αλγεινός, γαλακτοφάγος, and γλακτοφάγος, πετηνός and πτηνός, πυκινός and πυκνός , and as in Latin we have the shortening
• Synizesis in Greek applies only to the quick pronunciation of two vowels, if in immediate contact ; and not, if separated by consonants. Samprasarana might seem a more appropriate term, but though the grammatical process designated in Sanskrit by Samprasarana offers some analogies, it could only by a new definition be applied to the metrical process here intended.
A. B. p. 835, 30. dotl 8d dytos koivois pétpous val Kalounévn Overφώνησις ή και συνίζησις λέγεται. Όταν γαρ φωνηέντων επάλληλος γένηται η τροφορά, τότε γίνεται η συνίζησις εις μίαν συλλαβήν. Διαφέρει δε συναλοιφής: ή μεν γαρ γραμμάτων εστι κλοπή, η δε χρόνων και η μεν συναλοιφή, ώς λέγε. Tau, palvetas, 82 ou. Mehlhorn, Griechische Grammatik, $ 101. Thus in Νεοπτόλεμος we have symizesis, in Noυπτόλεμος syneresis.
• Cf. Meblhorn, Griechische Grammatik, $ 57.
Digized by Google