8.4.13
कुमति च
Operational rule vidhi
In a compound, the second member of which contains a guttural, there is ण in the room of न , that follows anything which standing in the prior member is qualified to cause the change, provided the न be at the end of a प्रातिपदिक , or be the augment नुम् , or occur in a विभक्ति.
Word by word (padaccheda)
Right context कुमति saptamī · ekavacanaIndeclinable च avyaya
- 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").
- Indeclinable An avyaya such as च "and", वा "optionally", न "not".
Full reading
कुमति च
Pāṇini leaves out words that carry over from earlier sūtras. Expand to see the rule as a reader actually understands it.
Commentary
In a compound, the second member of which contains a guttural, there is ण in the room of न , that follows anything which standing in the prior member is qualified to cause the change, provided the न be at the end of a प्रातिपदिक , or be the augment नुम् , or occur in a विभक्ति।
If the second part of a compound contains a letter of the class क्, the change is obligatory, even though the second part be not monosyllabic. As वस्त्रयुगिणौ, वस्त्रयुगिणः, स्वर्गकामिणौ, वृषगामिणौ ॥ नुम् :- वस्त्रयुगाणि, खरयुगाणि ॥ विभक्ति :- वस्त्रयुगेण, खरयुगेण ॥
The word वस्त्रयुगिणौ is a compound of वस्त्र with युगिन् (the affix इनिis added first to युग and then the word so formed is compounded with vastra). Thus the न् becomes प्रातिपदिकान्त i.e. it becomes the final of a Nominal-stem, which stands as a second member in a compound.
Śrīśa Chandra Vasu, The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (1897), via ashtadhyayi.com.