4.1.48
पुंयोगादाख्यायाम्
Operational rule vidhi
The feminine affix ङीष् comes after a word when it expresses the name of a wife in relation to her husband.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Left context पुम्- योगात् pañcamī · ekavacanaRight context आख्यायाम् saptamī · ekavacana
- Left context Pañcamī (5th case): "after X", the operation applies to what follows (1.1.67 तस्मादित्युत्तरस्य). Also used for limits and sources.
- 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").
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Full reading
पुम्- योगात् आख्यायाम्
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
The feminine affix ङीष् comes after a word when it expresses the name of a wife in relation to her husband.
Relation (yoga) with a male (punsa) is called पुंयोग ॥ Thus the wife of गणक 'an astrologer' is called गणकी, so also महामात्री 'the wife of a chief minister', प्रष्ठी 'the wife of a chief'; प्रचरी &c. Thus the word गणक means an astrologer, a calculator or a mathematician; and the wife of such a person will be expressed by the word गणकी ॥ But if a woman is herself an astrologer &c, she will be called गणका ॥ (by टाप्) &c. Therefore when matrimonial relation is not denoted, this sutra will not apply.
Why do we say 'in relation to a husband'? Observe देवदत्ता यज्ञदत्ता 'two women of the names of Devadatta, and Yajnadatta, not wives of Devadatta and Yajnadatta.'
Why do we say "आख्या or a name"? The word formed will be the name of a woman whose husband is possessed of the quality denoted by the word, and not that the woman possesses that quality. In the case of a woman, therefore, the word is merely a Name or a Designation, and has no reference to the etymological meaning of the word. Moreover, the omission of the word आख्यायाम् would have made the sutra ambiguous, for the phrase पुं योगाद् also means 'an effect produced by union with a man' such as pregnancy. And words परिसृष्टा and प्रजाता would have required ई and not आ ॥
Vart:- Prohibition must be stated in the case of words like गोपालिक and the rest. Thus गोपालिका 'the wife of a cow-herd'.
Vart: The affix चाप् comes after सूर्य in denoting the wife of Surya, when she is a celestial being. As सूर्या 'the celestial wife of the god Surya', while सूरी will denote a human wife of Surya, such as, Kunti &c. The affix चाप् makes the word acutely accented on the final: for the word सूर्य has acute on the initial, and had ङीष् been only prohibited and no specific affix ordained, then टाप् would have applied, and it would have left the accent unchanged. Hence a distinct affix चाप् is ordained.
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.