Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/174

I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. It expresses: 1. the object, which is the prevailing meaning when the final member is an agent noun or an action noun; e. g. ab-ji-t- 'winning waters', aśva- hayá 'urging on steeds', nr-pati- 'protecting men', vája-sāti- 'act of winning booty', vrtra-hátya- n. 'act of slaying Vṛtra'. When the final member is a verbal noun formed from kr- 'make', the first member does not necessarily express the product, but may mean the material with which the activity is concerned; thus hiranya-kārá- (VS.) is not 'gold-maker' but 'worker in gold', 'goldsmith'. 2. the agent when the last member has a passive sense; e. g. indra-pá- tama- ‘most drunk by Indra', sóma-sita- ‘excited by Soma'; occasionally also when the final member is an action noun, as devá-hiti- 'ordinance of the gods', parna-sada- (AV. VS.) ‘fall of leaves', mitra-túrya- (AV.) ‘victory of friends'. 164 3. the instrument, the source, or the locality when the final member is an agent noun or a past passive participle; e. g. ádri-dugdha-² ‘milked with stones', aritra-párana- 'crossing with oars'; gó-jata- 'produced from kine', tīvra-su-t- 'pressed from the fermenting mass'; uda-plutá- (AV.) 'swimming in the water, áhar-jata- (AV.) 'born in the day', puru-bhi- 'being in many places', bandhu-kşi-t- 'dwelling among relatives', pŕśni-ni-preșita- 3 'sent down to earth'. 4. in an appositionally nominative sense, that as or like which the action of the final member is performed; e. g. iśana-ky-t- 'acting as a ruler', purva-pá- 'drinking first', vamá-jata- 'born as one dear' = 'dear by nature'; dhara-vaká- 'sounding like streams', syená-juta- 'speeding like an eagle'. 5. in the sense of a predicative nominative before a past participle, or a predicative accusative before an agent noun expressive of 'saying'; e. g- bhaksám-krta- (TS.) 'enjoyed', stóma-tasta- 'fashioned as a hymn of praise'; vratya-bruvá- (AV.) 'calling oneself a Vratya'. 6. adverbially the manner in which an action is done, sometimes by means of a substantive, more often by means of an adjective; e. g. rtv-ij- 'sacrificing at the proper time', that is, 'regularly', sárga-takta- 'speeding with a rush'; ašu-pátvan- 'flying swiftly', dhruva-kṣi-t- (VS.) ‘dwelling securely', satya- yáj- 'sacrificing truly'; with a numeral in dvi-já- (AV.) 'twice-born'. 275. Before a verbal noun a nominal first member very often appears with a case-ending4, generally with that which the corresponding verb would govern in a sentence. The accusative is here the commonest case, the locative coming next, while the other cases are rarer. A singular case- ending (the acc. or inst.) may here indicate a plural sense; e. g. áśvam-isti- 'seeking horses', puram-dará- 'destroyer of forts', śúneșita- 'driven by dogs' (súnā-). Plural (acc.) endings sometimes occur, but dual endings are never found in these compounds. The accusative case-ending is very common, generally expressing the object of a transitive verb, as dhanam-jaya- 'winning booty'. But it also ex- presses other senses, as that of the cognate accusative; e. g. subham-ya-(van)- 'moving in brilliance'; or of an adverbial accusative, e. g. ugram-paśyá-5 1 WACKERNAGEL 2¹, p. 198, quotes loka-| the body it expresses the sense of 'with jit-am svargám (AV. IV. 348) as showing that reference to', as bāhú-juta- 'quick with the the first member was felt to have an accu- arms'. sative sense = 'winning the heavenly world' (svargám lokám); but the Paipp. Ms. has the reading svargyam, which WHITNEY regards as better, translating world-conquering, heaven-going'. 3 The local sense here is that of the accusative of the goal. 4 Cp. LINDNER, Nominalbildung p. 28. 5 Occasionally the -m is inorganic, as in maksum-gamá- and alum-gá- (AV.) 'going swiftly'. In patam-gá- bird', patam-probably 2 When the first member is a part of