part they allow either at pleasure. The usage of the manuscripts is also discordant; the conversion to visarga is the prevalent practice, though the sibilant is also not infrequently found written, especially in South-Indian manuscripts. European editors generally write visarga; but the later dictionaries and glossaries generally make the alphabetic place of a word the same as if the sibilant were read instead.
Examples are: manuḥ svayam or manus svayam; indraḥ çūraḥ or indraç çūraḥ; tāḥ ṣaṭ or tāṣ ṣaṭ.
173. There are one or two exceptions to these rules:
a. If the initial sibilant has a surd mute after it, the final s may be dropped altogether — and by some authorities is required to be so dropped. Thus, vāyava stha or vāyavaḥ stha; catustanām or catuḥstanām. With regard to this point the usage of the different manuscripts and editions is greatly at variance.
b. Before ts, the s is allowed to become visarga, instead of being retained.
174. Before a sonant, either vowel or consonant (except र् r: see 179), स् s is changed to the sonant र् r — unless, indeed, it be preceded by अ a or आ ā.
Examples are: devapatir iva, çrīr iva; manur gacchati, tanūr apsu; svasṝr ajanayat; tayor adṛṣṭakāmaḥ; sarvāir guṇāiḥ; agner manve.
a. For a few cases like dūḍāça, dūṇāça, see below, 199 d.
b. The exclamation bhos (456) loses its s before vowels and sonant consonants: thus, bho nāiṣadha (and the s is sometimes found omitted also before surds).
c. The endings अस् as and आस् ās (both of which are extremely common) follow rules of their own, namely:
175. a. Final अस् as, before any sonant consonant and before short अ a, is changed to ओ o — and the अ a after it is lost.
b. The resulting accentuation, and the fact that the loss of a is only occasional in the older language of the Veda, have been pointed out above, 135 a, c.
Examples are: nalo nāma, brahmaṇyo vedavit; manobhava; hantavyo ‘smi; anyonya (anyas + anya), yaçortham (yaças + artham).
c. Final अस् as before any other vowel than अ a loses its स् s, becoming simple अ a; and the hiatus thus occasioned remains.
