Praudhamanorama p79

p79

The word api ('also') is meant [to allow] a pluta vowel of the ṭi whether heavy or not heavy. 'devadatta': [this vocative] begins sentences such as 'Come here, Devadatta!'. The same applies below. 'Every pluta [is optional]': and likewise, the Mahābhāṣya on the rule 'agnītpreṣaṇe parasya ca' states: 'Every pluta should be made optional, even for one who does not wish to act recklessly.' 'Recklessness' means abandoning the grammar; 'even for one who does not wish it' means 'even for one who adheres strictly to the grammar'—this is the explanation of Haradatta. Others say the meaning is: 'even for one who does not wish for the hardship of performance in optional injunctions, though having greater merit as its fruit, because of incapacity.' By this, the Bhāgavata passage 'Dvaipāyana, distressed by separation, cried out, "O son!"' is explained, because pluta is optional. Furthermore, it is also easy to say here that the word 'son' is not final in its sentence, because it can be an imitation preceding the finite verb. Moreover, let there be pluta, but because it is optional, let there not be prakṛtibhāva (the natural state). And likewise, the Mahābhāṣya on the rule 'ī cākravarmaṇasya' says: 'There is no need for the mention of ī: [one says] vaśā iyam or vaśeyam.' Indeed, all prakṛtibhāva for pluta is hard to maintain [here], on account of the rule 'aplutavadupasthite'. For 'upasthita' means the non-Vedic word 'iti'; when that follows, a pluta behaves as if non-pluta—such is its meaning. Thus, when an explanation is readily available in four ways, the statement of Śrīdhara that it is an 'archaic Vedic usage' should not be respected.