4.1.160
प्राचामवृद्धात् फिन् बहुलम्
Operational rule vidhi
According to the opinion of Eastern Grammarians after a stem not having वृद्धि vowel in the first syllable, the affix फिन् is diversely used in the sense of a descendant.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Target प्राचाम् ṣaṣṭhī · bahuvacanaLeft context अ- pañcamī · ekavacanaSubstitute / term फिन् prathamā · ekavacanaSubstitute / term बहुलम् prathamā · ekavacana
- Target Ṣaṣṭhī (6th case): names what gets replaced, "in place of X" (1.1.49 षष्ठी स्थानेयोगा).
- Left context Pañcamī (5th case): "after X", the operation applies to what follows (1.1.67 तस्मादित्युत्तरस्य). Also used for limits and sources.
- 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
प्राचाम् अ-
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
प्राचाम् → फिन् बहुलम् / अ-
Replace prācām with phin bahulam when it comes after a-vṛddhāt. Inherited words (anuvṛtti) may add further conditions.
Commentary
According to the opinion of Eastern Grammarians after a stem not having वृद्धि vowel in the first syllable, the affix फिन् is diversely used in the sense of a descendant.
Thus ग्लुचुकायनिः or ग्लौचुकिः 'son of Gluchuka', ॥ अहिचुम्बकायनिः or आहिचुम्बिः ॥ Why do we say, "not having a Vriddhi in the first syllable", Observe राजदन्तिः ॥ The words प्राचाम्, बहुलं and अन्यतरस्याम् all denote optional rules, so the employment of any one of them would have here sufficed. Why two are used in this sutra viz. प्राचां and बहुलं ? The mention of Grammarians is made as a token of respect, and बहुलं is used to express the non-uniformity of the sutra construction. In some places this affix फिन् is not at all added, as दाक्षिः, प्लाक्षिः ॥
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.