7.1.89
पुंसोऽसुङ्
Operational rule vidhi
The पुम्स् अङ्ग gets the असुङ् आदेश when it is expected to be followed by a सर्वनामस्थान.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Target पुंसः ṣaṣṭhī · ekavacanaSubstitute / term असुङ् 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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Full reading
पुंसः असुङ्
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
पुंसः → असुङ्
Replace puṃsaḥ with asuṅ. Inherited words (anuvṛtti) may add further conditions.
Commentary
असुङ् (अस्) is substituted for the final of पुंस् in the strong cases.
The word पुंस् is derived from पा (to protect) + डुम्सुन् (Unadi IV. 178), the म् being changed to anusvara. So when स् of पुंस् is replaced by अस् we get the form पुमस्, the उ of असुङ् indicates that न् should be added in the strong cases after अ 7.1.70, so we have पुमान्, पुमांसौ, पुमांसः ॥
This substitution must take place in its incipient stage before the affixes are added, (उपदेशिवद्भावः) : otherwise the accent will be wrong. The compounds have acute on the final, 6.1.223, therefore, परमपुंस् has acute on पु. and in the Nominative Singular परमपुमान् the acute will remain on पु, but it is intended that it should be on मा, thus परमपुमान् ॥ The simple word पुमान् of course, has accent on पु ॥
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.