86 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



though being respectively masculine or feminine, do not 

 inform us as to their gender by their outward appearance. 



The gender, which is ascribed to objects expresses to a 

 certain extent the opinion, which is passed on their main 

 qualities. As this opinion differs, gender also changes. 

 Thus sun is masculine in Sanskrit (surya), Greek (helios) and 

 English, but it is feminine in Grerman ; it is both masculine 

 and feminine in Hebrew (shemesh), but only feminine in 

 Arabic (shamsim). 



Concerning the origin of the different genders the Sanskrit 

 grammarians entertain peculiar — one may perhaps say 

 abstruse — views, which are intimately connected with the 

 Indian philosophical systems, more especially perhaps with the 

 Sankhya doctrine. The primary substance (prakriti), from 

 which all objects are evolved contains three constituents 

 (guna), satvam, rajas and tamas, i.e., goodness, passion and 

 darkness. In proportion as these constituents are distributed 

 in the various objects, their nature and character changes. 

 As all objects, so also are the nouns subject to this rule of 

 evolution. When all the three constituents are contained in 

 equal proportions in an object, it has in grammar a neuter 

 gender, if goodness (satvam) prevails, it has a masculine, and 

 if passion (rajas) prevails it has a feminine gender. 134 



While in concrete languages no word has any intrinsic 

 gender, every word belonging to an abstract dialect has a 

 certain gender ; it may even have more than one, but is never 

 without gender. 



There are three peculiar cases in which the character of 

 gender manifests itself in all its innate force and tenacity. 



(134) " Satvarajastamogunanam samyavastha napumsakatvam, adhikyarn 

 pumstvam, apacayah strltvam," in Kaundabhatta' s Vaiyakaranabushanasara. 

 See also Taranatha Tarkavachaspati's Sabdartharatnam, page 118: " Tathaki 

 sarvesham trigunaprakritikaryataya sabdanam api tathatvena gunagatavise- 

 shacchabdeshu lingavisesha iti kalpyate sa ca viseshah sastre ittham abhya- 

 dhayi. Vikritasatvadinam tiilyarupenavasthauat napumsakatvam, satvasya- 

 dhikye pumstvam, rajasa adhikye strltvamiti." 



