MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

s a is always shortened or nasalized before r in the written text ;^2 EXTERNAL VOWEL SANDHI [I8-10a. The contraction of a + a and of u + u occasionally doesnot take place, even in the written text of the RV., bothbetween the Padas of a hemistich and within a Pada ;thusmanisa Iagnih. manisa abhi; ;vilu uta ;su urdhvah ;and in a compound, su-utayah.h. On the other hand, the metre requires the contractedvowels of the written text to be restored in pronunciation.In such cases the restored initial islong by nature orposition, while the preceding final, if long, must be shortened.^Thus casat ispronounced as ca asat ;carcata as ca areata ;map^h as ma ap6h (for ma ap61i) ;mrlatidrse as mrlatiidrse ; yantindavah as yanti indavah ;bhavantuksanahas bhavantu uksanah. When the first word is a monosyllable(especially vi or hi), the written contractions i andu are usually to be pronounced with hiatus thus hindra as;hi indra.19. a and a'^a. coalesce with the simple vowels 1 and u to the Gunavowels e and o ^pit6va = pita iva ;6mrespectively ; e. g.ihoha = iha iha ;= a im ;6bha = a ubha.* Theyare never contracted to ar in the written text of the RV. orVS. ; ^ but the metre shows that the combination is sometimesto be pronounced as ar, for instance in the compoundsapta-rsayah the seven seers = saptarsayah.^Because of tlio prosodical rule that a long vowel is alwaysshortened before another vowel. Cf. note 5.2Occasionally a -f i remain uncontracted in the written text ofthe RV., as jya iyam, piba imam, ranaya ih^.'This contraction is a survival because e and o arc simijle longvowels, but they were originally = ai, au.*But in many instances where the contraction is written, theoriginal simple vowels must be restored with hiatus ;thus subhdgosah= subhaga usah.e. g. td.tha rtuh (for tatha) ; vipanyam rtfisya (for vipanya).