kánīyas and kániṣṭha are attached by the grammarians to yúvan young, or álpa small; and várṣīyas and várṣiṣṭha to vṛddhá old.
468. From Veda and Brāhmaṇa together, considerably more than a hundred instances of this primary formation in īyas and iṣṭha (in many cases only one of the pair actually occurring) are to be quoted.
a. About half of these (in RV., the decided majority) belong, in meaning as in form, to the bare root in its adjective value, as used especially at the end of compounds, but sometimes also independently: thus, from √tap burn comes tápiṣṭha excessively burning; from √yaj offer come yájīyas and yájiṣṭha better and best (or very well) sacrificing; from √yudh fight comes yódhīyas fighting better; — in a few instances, the simple root is also found used as corresponding positive: thus, jū́ hasty, rapid with jávīyas and jáviṣṭha.
b. In a little class of instances (eight), the root has a preposition prefixed, which then takes the accent: thus, ā́gamiṣṭha especially coming hither; vícayiṣṭha best clearing away; — in a couple of cases (áçramiṣṭha, áparāvapiṣṭa, ástheyas), the negative particle is prefixed; — in a single word (çámbhaviṣṭha), an element of another kind.
c. The words of this formation sometimes take an accusative object (see 271 e).
d. But even in the oldest language appears not infrequently the same attachment in meaning to a derivative adjective which (as pointed out above) is usual in the later speech.
e. Besides the examples that occur also later, others are met with like váriṣṭha choicest (vára choice), bárhiṣṭha greatest (bṛhánt great), óṣiṣṭha quickest (óṣam quickly), and so on. Probably by analogy with these, like formations are in a few cases made from the apparently radical syllables of words which have no otherwise traceable root in the language: thus, kradhīyas and kradhiṣṭha (K.) from kṛdhú, sthávīyas and stháviṣṭha from sthūrá, çáçīyas (RV.) from çáçvant, áṇīyas (AV.) and áṇiṣṭha (TS.) from aṇú; and so on. And yet again, in a few exceptional cases, the suffixes īyas and iṣṭha are applied to stems which are themselves palpably derivative: thus, ā́çiṣṭha from āçú (RV.: only case), tī́kṣṇīyas (AV.) from tīkṣṇá, bráhmīyas and bráhmiṣṭha (TS. etc.) from bráhman, dhármiṣṭha (TA.) from dhárman, dráḍhiṣṭha (TA.: instead of dárhiṣṭha) from dṛḍhá, rághīyas (TS.) from raghu. These are beginnings, not followed up later, of the extension of the formation to unlimited use.
f. In návīyas or návyas and náviṣṭha, from náva new, and in sányas from sána old (all RV.), we have also formations unconnected with verbal roots.
469. The stems in iṣṭha are inflected like ordinary adjectives in a, and make their feminines in ā; those in īyas have a peculiar declension, which has been described above (463 ff.).
