rigvedic_nasalization

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Anunsika (Nasalization)in the gveda

Narsing Rao

April, 2011

Email: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Table of Contents

Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3

Nasalization of long vowels.................................................................................................................3

Example 1 (Nasalization of)........................................................................................................4

Example 2 (Nasalization of).........................................................................................................5Example 3 (Nasalization of)........................................................................................................5Example 4 (Nasalization of)........................................................................................................5Example 5 (Application of 8|3|10)...................................................................................................5

Special case Nasalization of ..................................................................................................6Nasalization of.........................................................................................................................6

Nasalization Statistics...........................................................................................................................7

Nasalization of short vowels................................................................................................................7

Nasalization rules in the gvedaprtikhya .......................................................................................8Summary...............................................................................................................................................9


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Introduction

There are several examples of nasalization (i.e. Pronouncing the nasal form of a vowel) in the

gveda and this paper will provide an analysis of these.

In Sanskrit, every vowel has two variations based on nasalization:

Nasalized ( ) Not Nasalized ( )

Bhattoji Dikita, in his Siddhnta Kaumud, summarizes the variations as follows:

- !" "& )! ! , . "

these have 18 variations (3 durations X 3 pitches X 2 nasalizations = 18) each)- has 12 variations, since it has no,form, onlyand(2 X 3 X 2)

these have 12 variations each since they don't have anyform, only,and

In the Devanagari script, a nasalized vowel is written with a Candrabindu5. For example: 5, 5.Rules pertaining to nasalization in Sanskrit can be grouped into two categories:

Nasalization of long (drgha) vowels Nasalization of short (hrasva) vowels

Of these, the first category (nasalization of long vowels) are better defined, and will be dealt withfirst.

Nasalization of long vowels

Several rules pertaining to nasalizition are found in the Rutva prakaraa -Atdhyy 8.3.1 8.3.12. Pini usesas a substitute in exactly two rules:

8|2|66 8 &8|3|1 8 :<

The first rule above (8|2|66) requires that the endingof a.as well as theofbesubstituted with. Thisis actually ; howeverPini needed to distinguish between the anaturally occuring final (as, for example, in ), and the final which is a substitute for.

An example will illustrate why this difference needs to be made:

+ @& =@:

but

A!+ @:= A!++ @& (by 8|2|66)


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= A!++ @: (by 6|1|113 8 8")= A!B+ @& (by 6|1|87 D&)= A!B@& (by 6|1|109 & .)

The rules relevant to nasalization are shown in the table below:

Number Sutra Comment/Interpretation

8|3|1 Anuvtti oftill 8|3|12

8|3|2 Adhikra till 8|3|12, indicating that these rules apply to thesvara immediately preceding

8|3|3 Makes compulsory (nitya) the option that follows from 8|3|2and 8|3|9

8|3|4 Interpreted as follows: either the vowel immediately preceding

is nasalized (i.e. Made ) or it is followed by(in which case it is not nasalized)

8|3|6 $Anuvtti of." till 8|3|8. Note that = { ! }

8|3|7 When the ending(except that of} is followed by anyof{ } which in turn is followed by any of, thegets substitued by.Anuvtti of& till 8|3|12

8|3|8 !+- In the gveda, the previous rule (i.e.Substituion ofby) becomes optional. Anuvtti oftill8|3|9

8|3|9 / $In the gveda, the finalpreceded by a long (,) vowel andfollowed by any of (any vowel or ! ) gets substituted

byprovided that bothand are in the samepda.

8|3|10 1$ The endingofLis substituted byif follwed by.

Let us now see how these rules work using a few examples:

Example 1 (Nasalization of)

Fourth pada of RV 10.90.14:

! , ,B


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Third pada of RV 1.37.12

8 ! 8 : 5 !, D,5!,

D, !,= D, !, (by 8|3|9)= D,5 !, (by 8|3|2)= D,5!,


Second pada of RV 1.78.4

) !8 !A5A" [ \&

!A+ A"=!A5A"(using the same rules as in Example 2)


Second pada of RV 5.54.15

8 ! !8 !" L5 " 8 ! 8 !! " &

L+ =L5(using the same rules as in Example 2)

Example 5 (Application of 8|3|10)RV 1.121.1

L5:. "! _8 `D ! ! !!8 !" " !&

RV 8.84.3

! A8 L5:. , D& 8

L .= L . (by 8|3|9)= L5 .= L5:.orL5.There are no instances of nasalizations of, ,, and .


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Special case Nasalization of

The particle is nasalized by the following rule:

8(6|1|123)

The meaning of this rule is: when is followed by inin the Veda, then it is nasalized.TheMahbhya clarifies further: 8!" A-8 :! ...: ! 8 :

Here are some examples:

RV 1.122.5 .& 5 8"!..& " 8"!

RV 9.86.23 .& . 5 !..& ." 8 !

RV 8.67.11 .& D, 5 ."..& D," ."

Nasalization of

The word(meaning together) occurs 94 times in the gveda; of these 7 are nasalized following

6|1|123. Here is Syaa's explanation (extract from the commentary on 1.51.11):

RV 1.51.11 .& " 5 8 `A..& " & `A

!" .8 " l. ! 8.! "& "& !8 !

Notes:

By 3|2|76l. ,l.can be used with any verbal root. Here is the Kik Vtti on thissutra:!& 8.."!8 .."! ! l. !!8

Ultimately nothing remains ofl.- and.are tags (:), andis to facilitatepronunciation. What is left is, which is removed by 6|1|67".)!

! 8.!is a Vrttika on 7|1|39. .A"!!& Itmeans that , !and ! should also be included in the substitutions for..

has two forms: with and without the tag . The following loka distinguishes the twoforms:

r !!8D" !< !& !!8

+l.+= + (by the Vrttika above)= 5 (by 6|1|123)


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Nasalization Statistics

The following table shows the frequencies of nasalizations of long vowels in the gveda:

Vowel Number of

occurences

Common words

5 7251 "(88),(33),(30),(33), (29),(13),(13),(13),(15),(11),(10),(9), !(8),.(8),(7), (7),!(7),(6),(5), (5),8(4),(4),..(4),,(4),(4), (3),!(3),(3),,(3)

5 47 .,(8),,(5),,(4),.,(4),.,(4),,(3)

5 46 !A(11),A(8), A(6), A(4),.)!A(3)5 4

Total 822

Nasalization of short vowels

In the , among short (hrasva) vowels, we find anunsika forms only of (i.e. 5). This is moredifficult to explain. There are 14 such instances in the gveda.

Syaa explains these (somewhat unsatisfactorily) using the rule:

8|4|57 8D)!&

Combining this with the previous rules (8|4|57"), this means that the ending { }of a word optionally becomes nasalized.

The Kik Vtti on this rule is as follows:

8D)!" ! "8 , 5, ,5, , ?) ) D)!" ? @, !A

We now give the occurrences of5along with the explanations by Syaa :.33.4 /9:;


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.7.2 $= 9 =>9 H= I9 = I9 /9

, ! [ !& !!" "& ): 8D)! [." ,! !!" !.

.0.5 $=9 =9$=$>9 = 9 9$9 =H

8D)!& ! & &

Syaa does not provide any explanations for the anunsika after Mandala 1:

2.4.2 = 9< = 9>= 9 = : /9=4.35.2 9I99 =9= >9 9 = 9Y =$9 =

6.46.5 9 $9 =9 = I :9 =a

8.5.3 = >9 = I9= $8.5. 9 < =>9 = I9= $

8.8.0 < = 9 =>9 = I9< = $

8.00.5 = $9 =:I9>9 9/=< :9= I9$

0.034.05 = 99 9=>9 /$=< I9< 9/=

One thing that can be noticed in the above examples is that in all cases, 5is followed by eitheror.

Nasalization rules in the gvedaprtikhya

The gvedaprtikhya has a rule very similar toAdhyy8|4|57, which is:

"D)! . . .

< " D) !& &

The first eight vowels ( ) are considered by cryas to be anunsika when theyare at the end of a word (with no follwing word) provided they are notpraghya.


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However this rule appears to have been optional, since the next rule is:

" !!!.8."& . . .

" & ! !--.8.-"&

That (anunsika), according to the followers ofkalya, who do not wish to be the cause of thedisappearance of the tradtion, should apply only for a vowel that has three mtras (i.epluta).

Uvvaa, in his commentary, gives the following example from RV 10.161.1:

, ,5

Here, the lastispluta and occurs at the end of thepda, which is avasna, hence it becomesanunsika. It should be noted that in the sahit recitation, avasna occurs only at the end of the

pda.

All this indicates that the use ofanunsika at the end of thepda in the gveda was the rule inancient times. Later on, this rule was gradually relaxed, till it became applied only in the case of

pluta.

The gvedaprtikhya uses the term rakta foranunsika:

8: . . .

A related topic pertaining to defects in pronunciation appears in the uccraadoapaalam :

!!5 & 8 . .

This means that a defect in pronunciation occures when a nasal vowel (called rakta) is lengthened(drghayanti), as in5 & (see RV 7.25.4 above).

SummaryThis paper has summarized the use of nasalization (anunsika) in the gveda. While the rules fornasalization of long vowels are well defined in the Rutva prakaraa of theAtdhyy (8.3.1 8.3.12), the rules for nasalizations of short vowels are not as clear.

The gvedaprtikhya indicates that nasalization was widely prevalent in ancient times butgradually got reduced in scope.

There appears to be several studies done on nasalization in the Prkts as well as in modern Indianlanguages. Transformations from Sanskrit to Hindi often involve nasalizations; for example to5and.to5.. It also appears that there are languages in which nasalization serves as a word-

boundary marker. These topics, however interesting, are beyond the scope of this paper; howeverthey could throw some light on nasalizations in the gveda.

The reason for the nasalization appears to be clear delineation of lexical units.

rigvedic_nasalization

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