d. That is to say, the o from as is treated as an original e is treated in the same situation: see 132–3.
Examples are: bṛhadaçva uvāca, āditya iva, námaükti, vásyaïṣṭi.
176. Exceptions to the rules as to final as are:
a. The nominative masculine pronouns sás and eṣás and (Vedic) syás (495 a, 499 a, b) lose their s before any consonant: thus, sa dadarça he saw, eṣa puruṣaḥ this man; but so ‘bravīt he said, puruṣaḥ eṣaḥ.
b. Instances are met with, both in the earlier and in the later language, of effacement of the hiatus after alteration of as, by combination of the remaining final a with the following initial vowel: thus, tato ’vāca (tatas + uvāca), payoṣṇī (payas + uṣṇī), adhāsana (adhas + āsana): compare 133 c, 177 b. In the Veda, such a combination is sometimes shown by the metre to be required, though the written text has the hiatus. But sa in RV. is in the great majority of cases combined with the following vowel: e.g. sé ’d for sá íd, sā́ ’smāi for sá asmāi, sāú ’ṣadhīḥ for sá óṣadhīḥ; and similar examples are found also in the other Vedic texts.
c. Other sporadic irregularities in the treatment of final as occur. Thus, it is changed to ar instead of o once in RV. in avás, once in SV. in ávas (RV. ávo), once in MS. in dambhiṣas; in bhuvas (second of the trio of sacred utterances bhūs, bhuvas, svar), except in its earliest occurrences; in a series of words in a Brāhmaṇa passage (TS. K.), viz. jinvár, ugrár, bhīmár, tveṣár, çrutár, bhūtár, and (K. only) pūtár; in janar and mahar; and some of the ar-stems noted at 169 a are perhaps of kindred character. On the other hand, as is several times changed to o in RV. before a surd consonant; and sás twice, and yás once, retains its final sibilant in a like position.
d. In MS., the final a left before hiatus by alteration of either as (o) or e (133) is made long if itself unaccented and if the following initial vowel is accented: thus, sū́rā éti (from sū́ras + éti), nirupyátā índrāya (from -yáte + índ-), and also kāryā̀ éka- (from kāryàs, because virtually kārías); but ādityá índraḥ (from ādityás + índraḥ), etá ítare (from eté + ítare).
177. Final आस् ās before any sonant, whether vowel or consonant, loses its स् s, becoming simple आ ā; and a hiatus thus occasioned remains.
a. The maintenance of the hiatus in these cases, as in that of o and e and āi (above, 133–4), seems to indicate a recent loss of the intermediate sound. Opinions are divided as to what this should have been. Some of the native grammarians assimilate the case of ās to that of āi,
