3.1.143
विभाषा ग्रहः
Operational rule vidhi
The affix ण is optionally used after the verb ग्रह 'to seize'.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Substitute / term prathamā · ekavacanaLeft context ग्रहः pañcamī · ekavacana
- Substitute / term Prathamā (1st case): in operational rules, the substitute or the thing introduced; in definitions, the term or its referent.
- Left context Pañcamī (5th case): "after X", the operation applies to what follows (1.1.67 तस्मादित्युत्तरस्य). Also used for limits and sources.
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Full reading
ग्रहः
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
The affix ण is optionally used after the verb ग्रह 'to seize'.
This debars the affix अच्. Thus ग्रह् + ण = ग्रह् + अ 7.2.116 = ग्राहः 'seizing', 'a crocodile'; or ग्रह + अच् =ग्रहः 'a planet'.
The option allowed by this aphorism is a vyavasthita-vibhasha or definite option, that is to say, the affix ण is always used when the word to be formed means a water-animal, such as a crocodile, shark &c., and in that sense the word is ग्राह. But not so, when heavenly luminaries are meant; there the word is ग्रह.
Vart:- This rule should be extended to the root भू 'to be' also. Thus:- भावः 'condition' and भवः 'existence'.
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.