Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/172

I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. substantives in -ti; e. g. puró-hita- adj. ‘placed in front, m. 'domestic priest'; puro-hiti- f. 'domestic priesthood'. I. Agent nouns. Those which are formed with -aka and -snu are compounded with prepositions only: abhi-króś-aka- (VS.) 'one who cries out', vi-lấy-aka- (VS.) ‘melter'; abhi-socayi-ṣṇú- (AV.) 'causing heat', ni-șat-snú- 'sitting firmly'. Agent nouns in -țr may be compounded with adverbs, as pura-et- ‘going before', purah-sthatý 'standing at the head', and rarely with substan- tives, as nr-pati- 'protecting men', man-dhat-¹ 'applying (his) mind', 'thoughtful man'. Agent nouns formed with -z from secondary present stems are in a few instances compounded with substantives: gir-vanasy-ú- 'fond of hymns', deva-piy-ú- (AV. VS.) ‘hating the gods', rāṣṭra-dips-ú- (AV.) ‘wishing to injure the country'. 162 2. Action nouns. A few action nouns formed with -ã from adjectives in - derived from secondary verbal stems, begin in late passages of the RV. to appear in composition with a substantive: māmsa-bhikṣ-á- (1. 162¹²) 'request for flesh', śraddhā-manasy-á- ‘faithful intent' (x.113⁹); sajāta-vanasy-á- (TS. 11. 6. 67) ‘desire to rule over relatives'. Much more common are the abstracts in -ti (corresponding to adjectives in -ta), which may be compounded with indeclinables or nouns (adjective or substantive) 2; e. g. án-uti- 'no help', á-sasti- 'curse', nír-rti- 'dissolution', sá-huti- 'joint invocation', su-uti- 'good aid'; sóma-piti- 'drinking of Soma', sóma-suti- 'pressing of Soma'. Some of these are becoming or have become agent nouns; thus jarád-așți- 'attaining great age' as well as 'attainment of old age'; vásu-dhiti- 'bestowing wealth' as well as 'bestowal of wealth'; but vásu-nīti- (AV.) only bringing wealth'. Others, even in the RV., approximate to the type of the non-verbal determinatives, as ásu-nīti- 'world of spirits', rjú-nīti- 'right guidance', devá-hiti- 'divine ordi- nance', námo-vrkti- 'cleansing for adoration', pūrvá-citti- 'foreboding': these can, however, be understood as abstracts to corresponding compounds in -ta ³. 3. Gerundives. The gerundives formed with -ya are ordinarily compounded with adverbial prepositions, as puro-nuvakyà- (sc. fc- AV.) '(verse) to be repeated beforehand'. In the later Samhitas a noun here sometimes appears as first member: nīvi-bhāryà- (AV.) 'to be worn in a skirt', prathama-vāsyà- (AV.) 'worn formerly'. The Proper Names kunda-páyya-, puru-mayyà, vrsti- hávya-, if they are formed with the gerundive suffix -ya, would be examples from the RV.4.-Gerundives formed with -anīya and -enyas are compounded with prepositions and a(n)- only: a-mantraniya- (AV.) ‘to be asked'; sam- carénya- 'suitable for walking on', a-dvisenyá- 'not malevolent'.—Gerundives in -tva are not compounded at all except with a(n)-. 4. Participles. Besides prepositions and a(n)-, only indeclinable words occurring in connexion with verbs are found compounded with participles (exclusive of the past passive participle): thus alala-bhávant- 'murmuring' (waters) and jañjana-bhávant- 'crackling' (flame), astam-yánt- (AV.) 'setting' and astam-esyant- (AV.) ‘about to set', á-punar-dīyamāna- (AV.) ‘not being given back', avis-krnvänd- 'making visible', dur-vidvāms- ill-disposed, sú- vidvāms- 'knowing well'. I From manas- through *manz-dhātý-. 2 The verbal force is strongest when the preceding substantive has the sense of an object. 3 As devá-hiti- 'act of ordaining by the gods' beside devá-hita- ordained by the gods'. 4 The compounds ama-väsyà- (AV.) sc. ratri- night of the new moon', eka-vadyá- |(AV.) ‘uttering a single sound', a kind of spectre, and var-kāryā- (1. 884) are obscure in their formation. 5 A few gerundives in -tavya begin to be compounded with prepositions or particles in the B. portion of the TS. and MS.: pra- vastavyàm (TS.) 'one should go on a jour- ney'; a-bhartavyá- (MS.) 'not to be borne', sv-ètavyam (TS.) 'easy to go'.