पृष्ठम्:ADictionaryOfSanskritGrammarByMahamahopadhyayaKashinathVasudevAbhyankar.djvu/२१

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अक्षद्यूतादिगण
अक्षरसमाम्नाय
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अक्षद्यूतादिगण a class of words headed by अक्षद्यूत which take the tad. affix hak ( इक) in the sense of 'resulting from' e. g. अाक्षद्यूतिकं वैरम्, जानुप्रहृतिक्रम्, गातागार्तकम् etc. cf. P IV.4.19.

अक्षर a letter of the alphabet, such as a (अ) or i (इ) or h (ह) or y (य्) or the like. The word was originally applied in the Prātiśākhya works to vowels (long, short as also pro- tracted), to consonants and the ayogavāha letters which were tied down to them as their appendages. Hence अक्षर came later on to mean a syllable i. e. a vowel with a con- sonant or consonants preceding or following it, or without any con- sonant at all. cf. ओजा ह्रस्वाः सप्तमान्ताः स्वराणामन्ये दीर्घा उभये अक्षराणि R Pr. I 17-19 cf.एकाक्षरा, द्व्यक्षरा etc. The term akṣa- ra was also applied to any letter (वर्ण), be it a vowel or a conso- nant, cf, the terms एकाक्षर, सन्ध्यक्षर, समानाक्षर used by Patañjali as also by the earlier writers. For the etymo- logy of the term see Mahābhāṣya अक्षरं न क्षरं विद्यात्, अश्नोतेर्वा सरोक्षरम् । वर्णे वाहुः पूर्वसूत्रे । M. Bh. Āhnika 2 end.

अक्षरपङ्क्ति name given to the dvipada virāj verses divided into padās of five syllables. cf विराजो द्विपदाः केचित् सर्वा आहुश्चतुष्पदाः । कृत्वा पञ्चाक्षरान्पादांस्तास्तथाSक्षरपङ्क्तयः R. Pr. XVII. 50.

अक्षरसमाम्नाय alphabet: traditional enumeration of phonetically inde- pendent letters generally begin- ning with the vowel a (अ). Al- though the number of letters and the order in which they are stat- ed differ in different treatises, still, qualitatively they are much the same. The Śivasūtras, on which Pāṇini's grammar is based, enu- merate 9 vowels, 4 semi-vowels, twenty five class-consonants and 4 | sibilants. The nine vowels are five

simple vowels or monothongs (समा- नाक्षर) as they are called in ancient treatises, and the four diphthongs, (सन्ध्यक्षर ). The four semi-vowels y, v, r, l, ( य् व् र् ल् ) or antasthā- varṇa, the twenty five class-conso- nants or mutes called sparśa, and the four ūṣman letters ś, ṣ, s and h ( श् ष् स् ह् ) are the same in all the Prātiśākhya and grammar works although in the Prātiśākhya works the semi-vowels are mentioned after the class consonants.The difference in numbers, as noticed, for exam- ple in the maximum number which reaches 65 in the Vājasaneyi- Prātiśākhya, is due to the separate mention of the long and protract- ed vowels as also to the inclusion of the Ayogavāha letters, and their number. The Ayogavāha letters are anusvāra, visarjanīya,jihvāmu- līya, upadhmānīya, nāsikya, four yamas and svarabhaktī. The Ṛk Prātiśākhya does not mention l (लृ), but adding long ā (अा) i (ई) ,ū (ऊ) and ṛ (ऋ) to the short vowels, mentions 12 vowels, and mention- ing 3 Ayogavāhas (< क्, = प् and अं) lays down 48 letters. The Ṛk Tantra Prātiśākhya adds the vowel l (लृ) (short as also long) and mentions 14 vowels, 4 semi- vowels, 25 mutes, 4 sibilants and by adding 10 ayogavāhas viz. 4 yamas, nāsikya, visarjanīya, jihvāmu- līya, upadhmānīya and two kinds of anusvāra, and thus brings the total number to 57. The Ṛk Tantra makes a separate enume- ration by putting diphthongs first, long vowles afterwards and short vowels still afterwards, and puts semi-vowels first before mutes, for purposes of framing brief terms or pratyāhāras. This enumeration is called varṇopadeśa in contrast