deriv SD cv ashtadhyayi.com hei.de LSK ETT STT a 1.1.44 ALPH OLDHOMEPAGE NEWHOMEPAGE

na veti vibhASA

न वेति विभाषा ONPANINI 11044

The word "optionally" (/vibhASA) means "or not".

TITS, when a rule has "optionally" in it, you apply it if you want and don't apply it if you don't feel like it.

Example. The optional rule vibhASAzveH makes zvi श्वि get /samprasAraNa —

zvi श्वि + zvi श्वि + /Nal → zu शु + zu शु + /Nal → **zuzAve शुशावे with /samprasAraNa is fine

or not —

zvi श्वि + zvi श्वि + /Nal → zvi श्वि + zvi श्वि + /Nal → **zizvAya शिश्वाय without /samprasAraNa is fine too

The words vA वा and anyatarasyAm अन्यतरस्याम् mean "optionally" too.

I don't understand how a grammar can say "optionally". A grammar is supposed to tell people how to do things. I never heard an English grammarian saying anything remotely like "you can spell this word as NIGHT or NITE, both ways are okay" or "both 'between you and me' and 'between you and I' are correct".

The very fact that /pANini does say "optionally" sometimes, tells us that he did not have the authority to make people speak as he wished. He was not making up a language, he was summarizing the opinions of his fellow grammarians about which sorts of expressions are good and which are bad.

When /pANini tells us that you may say **papaca पपच or **papAca पपाच for "I cooked", that means that in his times some people said **papaca पपच and some people said **papAca पपाच. By saying "both are okay", /pANini is teaching his fellow teachers to not waste time debating if one of those should be deemed bad Sanskrit.

Also, imagine that both papaca पपच and papAca पपाच appear in the /veda in that sense. If people also use both options when talking, /pANini would have had no ground to forbid one of them.

According to /pANini both pronunciations "saMtuSta" and "santuSTa" are correct. Why do dictionaries sort this word alphabetically as if it where pronounced with n न् and not with hum?

Current usage matters too. Dictionary makers chose the option that is more common in spoken Sanskrit nowadays. Even though /pANini allows both pronunciations, n न् is much more common, so it makes sense to put the word where people will look for it first.

Why does /pANini say anyatarasyAm अन्यतरस्याम् sometimes? vA वा has the same meaning and is shorter? Using a word that is longer than necessary is very unlike him.

See Kiparsky thesis.