1848.] The most ancient Grammar of the Vedas. 23 



the syllable speaks here especially in favor of the latter. The first Pra- 

 ticakhya (XIII. 3) says : hrasvam ardha-svara bhaktya samaptam 

 anusvarasyopadham ahuryeke anusvara tavataivadhika. hrasvopadlm 

 dirghapurva tad-imam. i( According to some authors a half mora is 

 wanting to a short vowel preceding an anusvara ; the anusvara follow- 

 ing it is added with the same measure (of half a mora) ; a long syllable 

 before the anusvara is in the same proportion shorter," i. e. while the 

 syllable has originally two matras, one and a half only belong to it in 

 this case, the other half is kept in the anusvara ; the short syllable in 

 the same manner has but half a matra in the vowel and half a one in 

 the Anusvara. 



But that the Anusvara is in reality nevertheless a consonant, requires 

 no proof, and the Indian prosody treats, notwithstanding that measure- 

 ment, the short syllable with Anusvara as being long in every place, 

 which is only possible by a sanyoga. The Anusvara also has, according to 

 the above, just the measurement of a consonant, i. e. half a mora (Prat. 

 II. 1, 6, 7, b. vyanganam ardhamatra.) It will of course only be pos- 

 sible to give a perfectly sure statement of this, if we know from other 

 sources this system of the measurement of single sounds and their 

 time in rhythm, of which Panini does not instruct us. 



In conclusion, I make use of the above laws for the Anunasikya in 

 Veda for explaining a passage of the Rik. In Rik 1.9, 7, 6, (hymn 

 50, 6,) Rosen has : 



Jena pavaka chakshasa bhuranyanta gana anu | 



Twa Varuna pacyasi. 



Rosen translates no doubt according to Sayana : quolumine lustrans ! 

 terram homines sustentantem intueris, protector ! 



He consequently supposes gana to be the accusative of the plural, and 

 the nasal sound of the a would be regular. But it is quite impossible 

 to find in the accusative masculine bhuranyantan, a terram nutricem, or 

 any thing similar. Besides I doubt, that in the Vedas one can meet 

 with a passage in which bhuranyati has the signification which was put 

 to it in the later grammar, namely : " preserve, nourish" (s. the gana- 

 kandvadayas) . On the contrary, it is brought forward in the Nai- 

 ghantuka, II. 14, among the gati karmanas, and the adjective bhu- 

 rangu among the kshipra namani (Naigh. II. 15, Nir. XII. 22.) 

 The latter is at the same time the denomination of the eagle or 



