[Advaita-l] Re: Narayana - Word

[Subrahmanian, Sundararaman V [IT]]

> 
> Are there any examples where naarayaNa is used with "na" 
> instead of "Na"
> (that is with dental "na" instead of  cerebral Na)?
> 

As per grammar rules the last "na" (which was "na" in the word "ayana"
before joining "nAra") will get converted to "Na" vide the rule:

raShaabhyam noNaH samaanapade - Panini (I forget the sutra number).

When there is "ra" or a "Sha" before (not necessarily immediately) a
"n.h"kaara within a word (pada) and the "n.h"kara does not happen to be the
last letter of the word, then the "n.h"kara attains "N.h"tvam - gets
converted to "N.h".  If there are intervening letters, some will intercept
this transformation and some will not.  The following letters (and a few
other "exotic" situations) will not intervene: all vowels,  semi-vowels,
ka-class-letters(gutturals) and pa-class-letters(labials) vide the rule:

aTkupvaangnum avyayepi - Panini (I forget the sutra number).

raama + ayanam = raamaayanam => raamaaya"N"am (since aa, m.h, y.h are non
interfering and since raamaayaNam is a samaasa, it is treated as being in
the same word - samana pada or samyukta pada).

nAra + ayana = nArAyana => nArAya"N"a (since A, r.h, y.h are
non-interfering).

But in the word say "rasanaa" (tongue), the n.h does not become "rasaNaa"
because s.h interferes the transformation.

So, other than probably in Vedas, one will NOT be able to find naaraaya"na"
with a dental "na".

My 2c worth, based on limited knowledge of Sanskrit.

SVS