1.2.37
न सुब्रह्मण्यायां स्वरितस्य तूदात्तः
Operational rule vidhi
There should be no Monotony in the recitation of the सब्रह्मण्य hymns and in those hymns, the vowels, that would otherwise have taken the स्वरित accent, take the उदात्त accent instead.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Indeclinable न avyayaRight context सुब्रह्मण्यायाम् saptamī · ekavacanaTarget ṣaṣṭhī · ekavacanaIndeclinable तु avyayaSubstitute / term prathamā · ekavacana
- Indeclinable An avyaya such as च "and", वा "optionally", न "not".
- Right context Saptamī (7th case): "when X follows", the operation applies to what precedes (1.1.66 तस्मिन्निति निर्दिष्टे पूर्वस्य). Also a condition or domain ("in the sense of").
- Target Ṣaṣṭhī (6th case): names what gets replaced, "in place of X" (1.1.49 षष्ठी स्थानेयोगा).
- Substitute / term Prathamā (1st case): in operational rules, the substitute or the thing introduced; in definitions, the term or its referent.
Dotted words are technical terms. Hover or tap one to see its card.
Full reading
न सुब्रह्मण्यायाम् तु
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
There should be no Monotony in the recitation of the सब्रह्मण्य hymns and in those hymns, the vowels, that would otherwise have taken the स्वरित accent, take the उदात्त accent instead.
The subrahmanya hymns are portions of the Rig Veda mentioned in the satapatha Brahmana.
This sutra prohibits Ekasruti in the case of certain prayers called subrahmanya. By rule 1.2.34 read with 1.2.36 ante, prayers might be optionally uttered with Ekasruti accent. This ordains an exception to that rule In subrahmanya prayers there is no ekasruti; and in these hymns, a vowel which otherwise by any rule of grammar would have taken a svarita accent, takes an udatta accent instead.
As स॒ब्रह्म॒ण्यो३ मिन्द्रागच्छ॒ हरिव॒ आगच्छ॒. Here the word सुब्रह्मण्य is formed by the addition of the affix यत् to the word सुब्रह्मण्, and this य will get svarita accent by 6.1.185, (तित्स्वरितम्) as it has an indicatory त्; by the present sutra, this nascent svarita is changed into udatta. In the phrase इन्द्र आगच्छ, the word Indra being in the vocative case, इ is udatta, the अ of Indra is anudatta 6.1.198 \[1\]. The anudatta preceded by an udatta is changed into svarita 8.4.66 \[2\].
Thus the अ of इन्द्र must become svarita, but by the present sutra this nascent svarita is changed into an uddatta. Thus in इन्द्र, both vowels become udatta. In the word आगच्छ, the आ is udatta; the next letter which was anudatta becomes svarita, and from svarita it is changed to udatta by the present rule. Thus in the sentence इन्द्र आगच्छ the first four syllables are all acutely accented, the fifth syllable is only anudatta. So also in हरिव आगच्छ, for the reasons given above, the letters व and च्छ are anudatta, the rest are all acutely accented.
## Footnotes
- [1] - आमन्त्रितस्य च ॥
- [2] - उदात्तादनुदात्तस्य स्वरितः ॥
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.