8.2.105
अनन्त्यस्यापि प्रश्नाख्यानयोः
Operational rule vidhi
In a question or narration, the end vowel of a word, though not final in a sentence, becomes प्लुत and स्वरित , as well as the word which is final in a sentence.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Target अनन्त्यस्य ṣaṣṭhī · ekavacanaIndeclinable अपि avyayaRight context प्रश्नाख्यानयोः saptamī · dvivacana
- Target Ṣaṣṭhī (6th case): names what gets replaced, "in place of X" (1.1.49 षष्ठी स्थानेयोगा).
- Indeclinable An avyaya such as च "and", वा "optionally", न "not".
- 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
अनन्त्यस्य अपि प्रश्नाख्यानयोः
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
In a question or narration, the end vowel of a word, though not final in a sentence, becomes प्लुत and स्वरित , as well as the word which is final in a sentence.
The word 'padasya' is understood here: and so also the word 'svarita'. The end-vowel of a word which is not the last word in a sentence, as well as of the last word, becomes svarita and pluta, when a question is asked, or a fact is narrated. In fact, all the words of a sentence become svarita and pluta hereby.
Thus in questioning we have:- आगमा॑३: पूर्वा॑३न् ग्रामा॑३न् अग्नि भूतां॑३इ or पटा३उ ॥ Thus all words have become svarita and pluta. The final word would, in one alternative, become anudatta also, by 8.2.100, as shown under that sutra. The force of the word अपि in the sutra, is to make the final word also svarita, and thus this sutra makes 8.2.100 an optional sutra with regard to question.
In akhyana or narration, there is no other rule, which is debarred by this. Therefore there, all words become svarita and pluta necessarily, by the force of this sutra. Thus अगमा॑३न् पुर्वा॑३न् ग्रामा॑३न् भोः॑३ ॥
Another view of this sutra is that the word अपि applies only to akhyana, so that in akhyana all words become svarita. But in prasna, the final word will not become svarita, but anudatta necessarily by 8.2.100. According to this view, this sutra does not ordain option. This view is not adopted by Kasika, or Padamanjari or Siddhanta Kaumudi.
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.