लिटः कानज्वा

Operational rule vidhi

In the छन्दस् (Vedas), the affix लिट् (Perfect Tense) is optionally replaced by the affix कानच्.

Word by word (padaccheda)

Target लिटः ṣaṣṭhī · ekavacanaSubstitute / term आन prathamā · ekavacanaSubstitute / term वा prathamā · ekavacana

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.

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Pink letters are it-markers (anubandhas), tags dropped by 1.3.9. Hover or tap one for the rule that marks it, or try the it-letter finder.

Full reading

लिटः कानच् वा

Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.

As a rewrite rule (sketch from case endings)

लिटः → कानच् वा optional

Replace liṭaḥ with kānac vā, optionally. Inherited words (anuvṛtti) may add further conditions.

Commentary

In the छन्दस् (Vedas), the affix लिट् (Perfect Tense) is optionally replaced by the affix कानच्।
As अग्निं चिक्यानः 'he consecrated the fire'; सोमं सुषुवाणः 'he pressed the soma juice'. This being an optional affix, is sometimes not employed; as in the examples in the last aphorism.

Why has the word lit been repeated in this sutra, when its anuvritti could have been drawn from the last sutra ? The substitute कानच् replaces not only the special लिट् of sutra 3.2.105, but the general लिट् which comes after the roots in forming the perfect tense; so that the affix कानच् forms verbal adjectives as well as the perfect tense.

This affix comes after those verbs only which take Atmanepada terminations. See 1.4.100. तूतुजान (Rig. Ved. 1.3.6).

Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.