Vyākaraṇa-mahābhāṣya 1.1.9.1

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IASTदेवनागरीবাংলা

MBH 1.1.9.1

← 1.1.8.3 1.1.9.2 →

tulya-āsya-prayarnaṃ savarṇam

Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.1.9

Vṛtti Patañjali

tulayā sammitam tulyam .

That which is measured by a balance (tulā) is 'tulya' (equal).

āsyam ca prayatnaḥ ca āsyaprayatnam .

āsya and prayatna [together] = āsyaprayatna (a dvandva compound).

tulyāsyam tulyaprayatnam ca savarṇasañjñam bhavati .

That which has equal āsya and equal prayatna receives the designation savarṇa.

kim punaḥ āsyam .

But (punaḥ) what is āsya?

laukikam āsyam oṣṭhāt prabhṛti prāk kākalakāt .

āsya is the ordinary (laukika) [mouth]: from the lips (oṣṭha) on, up to before the larynx (kākala).

katham punaḥ āsyam .

But how (katham) [is the word] āsya [derived]?

asyanti anena varṇān iti āsyam .

'They cast (asyanti) the sounds (varṇa) by means of it (anena)' — thus (iti) āsya.

annam etat āsyandate iti vā āsyam .

Or (vā): 'this food flows into it (ā-syandate)' — thus āsya.

atha kaḥ prayatnaḥ .

Now (atha), what is prayatna?

prayatanam prayatnaḥ .

prayatna is prayatana (exertion, the making of effort).

prapūrvāt yatateḥ bhāvasādhanaḥ naṅpratyayaḥ .

[It is formed] from the root √yat preceded by pra-, [as] a formation denoting the action (bhāvasādhana), with the affix naṄ.

yadi laukikam āsyam kim āsyopādāne prayojanam .

If āsya [means] the ordinary mouth, what is the purpose in the taking-up (upādāna) of āsya [in the sūtra]?

sarveṣām hi tat tulyam bhavati .

For that (the mouth) is the same (tulya) for all [the sounds].

vakṣyati etat : prayatnaviśeṣaṇam āsyopādānam iti .

He will say this: 'the taking-up of āsya is a qualifier (viśeṣaṇa) of prayatna' — thus (iti).

Translator notes mūla-only construal · not shown in the reading edition

Mūla (Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.1.9): a saṁjñā-sūtra. 'savarṇa' is the name; that whose āsya (place of articulation) and prayatna (articulatory effort) are equal [to another's] is what is named. Rendered as a rule; word_for_word for the sūtra-words only. NB the source raw reads 'prayarnaṃ' (metathesis typo for prayatnam) — corrected silently to prayatna in the rendering, since the whole block glosses prayatna.
Dialectic construal (all segments Patañjali's prose; no vārttika in this block). s1–s3 gloss the words of the sūtra: s1 derives tulya ('measured by a balance'), s2 makes āsyaprayatna a dvandva, s3 gives the resulting saṁjñā-formula. s4–s8 answer 'what is āsya?' — s5 the ordinary sense (mouth-cavity, lips to before the larynx), s6–s8 two etymologies of the word āsya. s9–s11 answer 'what is prayatna?' — s10 gloss, s11 its derivation. s12–s13 open a pūrvapakṣa objection: if āsya is the ordinary mouth, mentioning it in the sūtra is purposeless, since the mouth is the same for every sound. s14 does NOT answer the objection here — it defers, pointing forward ('he will say this…') to the reply that āsya qualifies prayatna; that reply is developed in the next block (1.1.9.2, s7–s12). I read s14 as leaving the objection open here, as the bhāṣya does.
Note the tension between this block and 1.1.9.2: here s10 glosses prayatna simply as prayatana ('exertion'); in 1.1.9.2 s41 Patañjali denies exactly that ('na hi prayatanaṁ prayatnaḥ') before returning to it at s52. The plain gloss here is provisional.
Technical terms kept: saṁjñā, savarṇa, āsya (place of articulation), prayatna (articulatory effort), bhāvasādhana (kṛt formation denoting the action), the affix naṄ, upādāna (the taking-up/mention of a word in the sūtra), viśeṣaṇa (qualifier). Grammatical example-sounds are not glossed as words.

← 1.1.8.3 1.1.9.2 →