Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/185

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V. COMPOUNDS. GOVERNING COMPOUNDS. 175 the process of transmutation from the latter. They must in the vast majority of instances have been formed directly and independently in conformity with the type of these secondary adjectives which had come down from the IIr. period. WACKERNAGEL (2¹, 112) adopts the view that the origin of Bahu- vrihis is not to be explained by transmutation from determinatives, but from the predicative or appositional use of groups of words characterizing a sub- stantive. This use he exemplifies by the following quotations from the RV.: urúḥ kákṣo ná gāngyáḥ (vi. 45³¹) 'like the broad shoulder dwelling on the Ganges', that is, for *uri-kakṣaḥ 'Broad-shoulder' as a Proper Name; sá jayase sáho mahát (v.116) 'thou art born a great power' (=*maha-sahaḥ 'one having great power'); tvácam kṛṣnắm arandhayat (1. 1308) 'he delivered over the black skin' (that is, 'those having a black skin', 'the black-skins'); drighāya cid vácasa anavāya (vI. 62⁹) 'to Anava, deceitful speech', that is, 'who utters deceitful speech'³; and narám .. śámsaḥ (11. 34°) 'praise of men' as repre- senting an earlier stage than nárā-śámsa- ‘receiving the praises of men' as a Bahuvrihi. Appositional Bahuvrīhis, he thinks, similarly arose from explanatory clauses, as indra-jyeṣṭhā deváḥ 'the gods having Indra as their mightiest' from deváh indro jyésthah 'the gods Indra their mightiest'. The first step here would have been assimilation in case and number to the main substantive, involving change to a compound (with stem-form and single accent), followed by assimilation in gender. The change to the Bahuvrihi had already become the rule in the pre-Vedic period. 5. Governing Compounds. 292. In a considerable number of compounds the first member governs the last in sense, being either a preposition (prepositional adverb) or a verbal noun. These compounds being adjectives are allied to Bahuvrihis. I. In the prepositional group the first member is a preposition or adverb capable of governing a case. There are about twenty examples in the RV. In some instances they seem to have arisen from the corresponding syntactical combination, as ádhi-ratha- n. 'wagon-load' from ádhi ráthe (x. 64¹2) 'on the wagon'. In other instances they seem to have originated from the corresponding adverb; thus the adjective in pra-div-ā ketúnā (v.608) 'with long-existing light' has been changed from the adverb pra-divas 'from of old' to agree with a substantive in the instrumental. The ending of the second member has been preserved for the most part only when it was -a; otherwise the suffix -a or -ya is generally added. Like Bahuvrīhis, compounds of this type may become neuter substantives; thus upānas-á- 'being on the wagon', n. (AV.) 'space in a wagon'. a. All prepositions which govern cases (except áva) as well as prá (though it never governs a case), besides several adverbs capable of being used with a case, are employed as first member in these compounds 4. The following are examples of prepositional governing compounds: ati-matrá- (AV.) 'beyond measure', ati-ratrá- ‘lasting overnight', áty-amhas- (VS.) ‘beyond the reach of distress', áty-avi- 'running over the wool'; ádhi-gart-ya- 'being on the car-seat, adhi-gav-á- (AV.) 'derived from cows'; adhas-pad-á- ‘being 2 On substantives used instead of adjec- tives cp. BRUGMANN, Grundriss 2, p. 89. ¹ Cp. BRUGMANN, Grundriss 2, p. 88; IF. | similar in form to the prepositional Bahu- quite 18, 63 ff. vrihis; the meaning, however, is different, as in the latter the preposition does not govern the following member, but refers adverbially to the substantive with which the Bahuvrīhi agrees. 3 Cp. drog ha-vác- 'uttering deceitful speech'. 4 This type of governing compound is