In
Evaṃ adhyātmaṃ kāye kāyānupaśyi viharaty
Why viharaty? Why not an i?
There’s a number of similar cases on SC. It seems that the i changes to y when the next word starts with a vowel.
1 Like
Wild. I would assume that in internal sandhi, but this seems like between what is essentially “different words altogether”.
Seeing viharati with a y makes me think that it is actually an internal sandhi, and that it should be part of a larger word, something like viharatyātāpīsamprajanaḥ, all as “one word”. I say this because I can’t find an account of IAST with a “Y” vowel.
It makes me wonder where reciters were expected to breathe when chanting these texts! It seems these languages often have an entire sentences as “conceptually one word”.
I guess it’s just a matter of how the editor chose to print it.
Well, yes. But it’s mostly in the written texts that we find very long compounds. Having said which, we do find terms like:
abhivādanapaccuṭṭhānaañjalikammasāmīcikammacīvarapiṇḍapātasenāsanagilānapaccayabhesajjaparikkhārānuppadānenāti
bowing down to them, rising up for them, greeting them with joined palms, and observing proper etiquette for them; or by providing them with robes, alms-food, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick.
Which is just about chantable in one breath!
2 Likes