Priya_Panbhamadukravet - A Note
By J. M. Shukla
Summary
J.M. Shukla’s note (in Devanagari) discusses a passage from Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya about compound words. Patañjali argues that only the avyayībhāva compound should be considered indeclinable and illustrates this with a proverb describing a person escorting a guest 'until the end of the forest is reached and the other bank of a reservoir is crossed', implying that the compound expresses an adverbial sense. Shukla then examines Kṣirasvāmin’s alternate reading of Pāṇini’s Dhātupāṭha concerning the root protha (to snort). He compares forms such as protha (imperative), protham (present participle), popruha (intensive) and prapṛthya (gerund) and notes that early Vedic usage connected the root with the snort of a horse, but later texts extended its meaning to denote something protruding or puffing out. The article criticises misinterpretations by earlier commentators and urges lexicographers to recognise the semantic evolution of the root.
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Conclusion
Shukla’s brief note clarifies that only avyayībhāva compounds function as indeclinables and illustrates this with Patañjali’s example of accompanying a guest until a journey’s end. He then analyses verbal forms derived from the root protha, tracing their semantic development from the snort of a horse to broader senses of protruding or puffing. The note emphasises careful philological reading and challenges earlier commentators’ misinterpretations.