Verse 3.14.315

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.315:

विशेषस्याप्रयोगे तु लिङ्गसङ्ख्ये न सिध्यतः ।
अवर्षादिषु दोषश्च हेमन्तोऽन्याश्रयो यतः ॥ ३१५ ॥

viśeṣasyāprayoge tu liṅgasaṅkhye na sidhyataḥ |
avarṣādiṣu doṣaśca hemanto'nyāśrayo yataḥ || 315 ||

315. If a word expressive of the particular is not used, the required gender and number would not result. There would be difficulty in avarsāḥ etc. because hemantaḥ (different from varṣā) is here the substratum.

Commentary

[Extension of gender and number becomes necessary according to the view that it is the first constituent which is predominant in a negative compound. If the compound means nonexistence in general, qualified by the meaning of the second term, when words like kṣattriya are used in apposition to it, it is natural that the compound should have the gender and number of these words. But when they are not used, the compound would take the common neuter gender and the common singular number. Nor could we get forms like avarṣā hemantaḥ, anāpaḥ pṛthivī, because in avarṣā hemantaḥ, the gender of hemantaḥ would prevail. But this view (pūrvapadārthaprādhānya) is also wrong, because, according to it, there should be a short vowel at the end of avarṣāḥ which would be wrong. The accepted view is that, in a negative compound, it is the second constituent which is predominant. Therefore, the compound would get the gender and number of the second constituent and there would be no need for the extension of gender and number. A negative compound is not like a qualifier or a bahuvrīhi compound which are based on difference between their own meaning and that of the outside word and which, therefore, take the gender and number of the word which they qualify. So we can have expressions like abrāhmaṇaḥ kṣattram, abrāhmaṇaḥ kṣattriyaḥ etc. where the gender of the negative compound is according to that of the second constituent. So is number. That is why they are said to be natural. In asaḥ and asarvasmai, we see that tad and sarva are treated as sarvanāma because the two terms of the compound are in apposition to each other. It is only when the two terms are not in apposition to each other (vyadhikaraṇa) that the sarvanāma becomes upasarjana and loses that name as in atisarvāya where sarva is not treated like a sarvanāma. It is because varṣāḥ does not become upasarjana that its final vowel is not shortened in avarṣāḥ. According to what has been said above, if the first term of the negative compound is the predominant one, extension of gender and number is necessary.

Now gender and number in connection with words expressive of the Universal (jāti) are going to be considered.