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Exercise Page 139
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Visarga Sandhi
The goal of learning sandhi rules is to be able to identify words and their endings after they have undergone sandhi. In other words, identifying words and their endings in Sanskrit text requires 'breaking' or 'undoing' sandhi.
For example, the sandhi in the sentence "नृपो ऽस्य नगरस्य बहिर् वनं गत्वा पुनस् तस्मात् वनात् प्रत्यागच्छत्" one would not be able to identify that 'नृपो ऽस्य' is actually 'नृपः (1/1) अस्य (6/1)', 'बहिर्' is actually 'बहिः', and so on, without knowing sandhi rules. Only once one had broken each sandhi in this sentence will one be able to identify the words in it and their endings.
Since visarga occurs at the end of many words, it frequently undergoes sandhi with the first letter of the word that follows. The rules of visarga sandhi are summarized in the table available for download below.
For example, the sandhi in the sentence "नृपो ऽस्य नगरस्य बहिर् वनं गत्वा पुनस् तस्मात् वनात् प्रत्यागच्छत्" one would not be able to identify that 'नृपो ऽस्य' is actually 'नृपः (1/1) अस्य (6/1)', 'बहिर्' is actually 'बहिः', and so on, without knowing sandhi rules. Only once one had broken each sandhi in this sentence will one be able to identify the words in it and their endings.
Since visarga occurs at the end of many words, it frequently undergoes sandhi with the first letter of the word that follows. The rules of visarga sandhi are summarized in the table available for download below.
| Visarga Sandhi |
NOTE: In actual Sanskrit text, the spaces between words are often eliminated, and the final letter of one word is combined with the first letter of the next word. Therefore, the division between words is not necessarily indicated with a space in Sanskrit as it is in English. For example, the sentence above would usually be written "नृपोऽस्य नगरस्य बहिर्वनं गत्वा पुनस्तस्मात् वनात्प्रत्यागच्छत्". This combined writing (which is not sandhi, but a convention of writing only) will be introduced in Lesson 24. For now, spaces will be mostly maintained between words, even after sandhi has taken place.
TIP: When अः is followed by अ, अः becomes ओ, and the following अ is dropped and replaced by the symbol ऽ (called 'avagraha'). This avagraha is simply an indication that अ was dropped. It is represented by an apostrophe in transliteration. It is not a letter and has no pronunciation. In fact, older Sanskrit writing does not include this symbol at all. For pronunciation purposes it can be simply ignored, i.e. नृपो ऽगच्छत् is pronounced simply 'nṛpo gacchat'.
Principles of Breaking Sandhi
Recognition of sandhi requires both knowledge of sandhi rules as well as vocabulary to anticipate letters and endings that have undergone a change. Here are three steps that can be used to correctly identify sandhi, using the example of the sentence "रजको वाराणस्यां अवसत्".
It is important to confirm the sandhi using the latter two steps to avoid seeing a sandhi where none exists. For example, in the sentence "बन्धो तत्र गच्छामि", it looks like बन्धः has become बन्धो by visarga sandhi. However, here the अः of बन्धः is followed by the त् of तत्र, which is not a voiced letter. Therefore, Step 2 is not satisfied and no sandhi has taken place. (बन्धो is 8/1 of बन्धु meaning 'friend', so the sentence means "O friend, I go there".)
Similarly, in the sentence "कन्या गच्छति", it looks like कन्याः could have become कन्या by visarga sandhi. आः becomes आ when a voiced letter follows. Here आः of कन्याः might have become आ since it is followed by ग् of गच्छति, which is a voiced letter. However, कन्याः is 1/+ of कन्या, but the verb गच्छति is third-person singular. Therefore the broken sandhi does not fit grammatically, so Step 3 is not fulfilled and no sandhi has taken place. (The sentence is simply "कन्या गच्छति", meaning "The girl goes".)
- Identify possible changed letters: रजकः is 1/1 of the noun रजक, and अः can become ओ by visarga sandhi.
- Confirm sandhi rule for change: अः becomes ओ when a voiced letter follows, and here अः of रजकः is followed by व् of वाराणस्यां, which is a voiced letter.
- Confirm that broken sandhi fits grammatically: रजकः is 1/1 of रजक, which is the subject of अवसत्.
It is important to confirm the sandhi using the latter two steps to avoid seeing a sandhi where none exists. For example, in the sentence "बन्धो तत्र गच्छामि", it looks like बन्धः has become बन्धो by visarga sandhi. However, here the अः of बन्धः is followed by the त् of तत्र, which is not a voiced letter. Therefore, Step 2 is not satisfied and no sandhi has taken place. (बन्धो is 8/1 of बन्धु meaning 'friend', so the sentence means "O friend, I go there".)
Similarly, in the sentence "कन्या गच्छति", it looks like कन्याः could have become कन्या by visarga sandhi. आः becomes आ when a voiced letter follows. Here आः of कन्याः might have become आ since it is followed by ग् of गच्छति, which is a voiced letter. However, कन्याः is 1/+ of कन्या, but the verb गच्छति is third-person singular. Therefore the broken sandhi does not fit grammatically, so Step 3 is not fulfilled and no sandhi has taken place. (The sentence is simply "कन्या गच्छति", meaning "The girl goes".)
NOTE: By a rule of visarga sandhi, when अः is followed by अ, अः becomes ओ, and the following अ is dropped and replaced with the symbol ऽ (avagraha). In fact, the dropping of अ and replacing it with avagraha is not a visarga sandhi rule, but a more general rule. The rule is that अ is dropped and replaced by avagraha when following ए or ओ. Thus, even the phrase दाने अपि has become दाने ऽपि in the exercise.
TIP: The most commonly missed visarga sandhi is probably the dropping of visarga when आः is followed by a voiced letter. Since it is extremely common for a word to end in आः (देवाः, कन्याः, कन्यायाः, नद्याः, etc.) always consider the possibility of visarga sandhi when the letter आ is encountered at the end of a word followed by a voiced letter.
