Vasudevavijaya of Vasudeva (Study)
by Sajitha. A | 2018 | 50,171 words
This page relates ‘Sandhi in Grammar (Introduction)’ of the study on the Vasudevavijaya of Vasudeva from the 11th century A.D. The Vasudevavijayam is an educational poem belonging to the Shastra-Kavya category of technical Sanskrit literature. The Vasudevavijayam depicts in 657 verses the story of Lord Krishna while also elucidates the grammatical rules of the Ashtadhyayi of Panini (teaching the science of grammar). The subject-content of the poem was taken from the tenth Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.
Sandhi in Grammar (Introduction)
Combination of two words by means of certain rules is an integral feature of Sanskrit. The combination of letters or words forms a very important part of the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. This portion is designated either as Saṃhitā or Sandhi. This Sandhi is a phonetic combination of various kinds. Different permutations and combinations are possible in respect of this phonetic combination. It may be the combination of two vowels or two components or one vowel and one consonant as can take place due to their close utterance. Thus the science of phonetics is the very foundation of this phenomenon of the phonetic combination.
There is one well known Kārikā which provides the conventions or the rules about Sandhi.
saṃhitaikapade nitya nitya dhātūpasargayoḥ |
nitya samāse vākye tu sā vivakṣāmapekṣate ||
The phonetic combination is obligatory with regard to a single word, it is obligatory with regard to the combination of the preposition with its root, it is obligatory in the compound, but with regard to the utterance of a sentence it depends on the intention of the speaker.
Principally Sandhi is classified under five heads:
- svarasandhi,
- vyañjanasadhi,
- visargasandhi,
- prakṛtibhāvasadhi and
- svādisadhi |
Now, it is an attempt to look into Vāsudevavijaya, to learn how Vāsudeva presents the rules regarding Sandhi. This section deals with the examples given in Vāsudevavijaya for several kinds of Sandhi rules.