MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

184-185] VERBAL COMPOUNDS 267In the RV. a few substantives designating parts of thebudy are compounded with the gerund of grab seize: karnagi'hyaseizing by the ear, pada-grhya seising bg the foot,hasta-grhya grasping hy the hand.(1. The interjection hin is compounded with kr in the senseof utter the sound hin, murmur ; e. g.hin-krnvati lowing.There are also a few reduplicated interjectional w'ords,mostly onomatoi3oetic and nearly always ending in a, thatappear compounded with bhu and kr : alala-bhavant soundingmerrily ; janjana-bhavant sparkling malmala-bhavant;glittering bharbhara-bhavat became; confounded bibibabhavantcracUing ;;kik.ira krau tear to tatters ;masmasakaram I have crushed; masmasa kuru and mrsmrsa kurucrush ;akhkhali-krtya croaJcing.a. The latter compound is the only cx\mple in the RV. of iappearing in&tead of a before kr or bhii. The AV. has vati-krtan. a disease (from vata ivind).II.Nominal Compounds.185. From the Indo-European period the Vedic languagehas inherited the power of combining two or more wordsinto one treated like a simple word as regards accent,inflexion, and construction. Both in the frequency and inthe length of compounds the Vedic language resembles theGreek of Homer. In the RV. and the AV. no compoundsof more than three independent members are met with, andthose in which three occur are rare, such as purva-kamakrtvanfulflling former wishes.The two characteristic features of a compound are unityof accent and employment of the uninflected stem in thefirst member (or members) but there are; exceptions toboth these rules.Occasionally tmesis of a compound occurs.'^Chiefly in dual comi^ounds, as dyava ha ksama heaven and earth;also in a few others, as nd.ra va samsara, for nara-samsam. It takesplaice only when the compound is doubly accented.