The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c13.3

c13.3

*Agrayana* is evidently derived from *agra* and *ayana*. Of these *ayana*, which is derived from *i*, to go, may be represented by *ion* in Greek : cf. Sk. *ayus*, Gk. *aion* Sk. comparative termination (*nom. sin.*) *iyan* Gk. *ion*; Sk. termination *ayana*, as in *Gargyayana*, Gk *ion*, as in *Kronion*, ‘the descendant of Kronos’. The initial *a* in Sk. *Agrayana* may also become *o* in Greek; as in Sk. *ashayana*, Gk. *okeanos*; Sk. *ashu* Gk. *okus*. Sanskrit *Agrayana* may therefore be represented by *Ogrion* in Greek, and we have now to see if *g* may be dropped before *r* and *Ogrion* can be changed into *Orion*. It is a general phonetic rule in Teutonic languages that a gutteral may disappear before a liquid, whether initially or medially; cf. Ger. *nagel*, Eng. *nail*; *hagel* and *hail*; *regen* and *rain*; Sk, *kravis*, O. H. G. *ro*. Prof. Max Müller has extended the application of this rule to Latin and Greek, and Latin and French in his Lectures on the Science of Language, Vol II., p. 309. He compares Latin *paganus* with French *paien*, Gk. *luchne* With Lat. *lana*; and points out that on the same principle *lumen* stands for *lucmen*, *examen* for *exagmen*, *flamma* for *flagma*. K. Brugmann (Com. Gr. I., § 523.) would derive O. Ir. *ār*, Cymr. *aer* from *agro* on the same principle. This shews that Sk. *agra* may be easily represented by *ār* in Teutonic languages. We may account for the change in two ways. We may either suppose that the final gutteral of a root is sometimes dropped before terminations beginning with a liquid and thus put *luc-men* = *lu-men*, *fulg-men* = *ful-men*, *flig-men* = *fla-men*, *ag-men* = *ā-men*, *ag-ra* = *ā-ra* (with compensation vowel lengthening; Bopp derives Sk. *roman*, a hair from *ruh-man* growing, on the same principle); or we may suppose that the change is in accordance with general phonetic rule which sanctions the omission of a gutteral before a liquid in such cases. But whichsoever explanation we adopt, there no question as to the change itself. It must not, however, be supposed the rule is an unflexible one, and that a gutteral *must* always be dropped before a liquid; for we find that gutteral in such cases is often either retained or labialised. cf. Sk. *grīvan*, O. Ir. *broo*, *bro*, (gen. *broon*), Cymr. *breuan*; Sk. *gṛṇāmi*, O. Ir. *gair*. The proper rule to deduce from these instances would therefore be, that *gr* in Sanskrit may be represented by *gr*, *hr* or *r* in Teutonic languages, and that all the three changes are possible.