Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c11.73

c11.73

(v) In the declension of nouns in -u there appears to be a similar differentiation of gender to that which is found in the -i nouns. The masculine and neuter nouns have the instrumental either in -unā or in -vā, as krátunā, mádhunā, krátvā, mádhvā, where it is very possible that the forms in -unā have replaced an early -uā: the -vā form is the more common. In the feminine nouns it is usually necessary to restore -uā (or perhaps -uyā on the analogy of the adverbs such as sādhuyá) for -vā of the text. In the dual the restoration -uoḥ is regularly required.