A History of Sanskrit Literature c29.s2.5

c29.s2.5

To secure the brevity aimed at many devices are adopted; the cases are used pregnantly, verbs are omitted, leading rules are understood to govern others which follow; above all algebraic formulae replace real words; the rule that a vowel is changed into the corresponding semi-vowel when a vowel, not itself, follows is denoted by *iko yaṇ aci*; the last Sūtra *a a* denotes that *a* which has been treated in the grammar as an open letter, corresponding to which we have long *ā*, is really a closed letter pronounced like *u* in ‘but’. Older than Pāṇini are probably some technical terms of ungrammatical make-up, such as *parasmaipada*, active, *ātmanepada*, middle, *napuṁsaka*, neuter; others are reduced forms of the original as *it* to denote a letter not pronounced, appended to a word to indicate some feature regarding its treatment, from *iti*, so. The use of such Anubandhas is doubtless before Pāṇini, as the term Uṇādi itself proves.