1.4.10
ह्रस्वं लघु
Definition saṃjñā लघुसंज्ञा
A ह्रस्व स्वर gets the term लघु.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Term / subject prathamā · ekavacanaTerm / subject prathamā · ekavacana
- Term / subject Prathamā (1st case): the term being defined, or the subject of the statement.
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Full reading
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
A short vowel is called लघु 'light'.
This defines the word Laghu. A hrasva vowel which has already been defined 1.2.27, is under certain circumstances called laghu or 'light'; thus the i of भिद to break, is laghu, and by being laghu it is gunated before the affix ता + आ, as भेत्ता he will break, by virtue of the rule 6.3.8, which declares that a laghu penultimate vowel is gunated before a Sarvadhatuka or an ardhadhatuka affix. So also छेत्ता, अचीकरत् and अजीहरत्.
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.