Revise Sandhi: III Hal-Sandhi

As vowel sandhi was called अच्सन्धिः and in it we studied what happens when a vowel at the end of one word meets a vowel at the beginning of the next word. Today we are going to look at  हल्संधिः in which word-final consonants meet word-initial consonants (as well as vowels) and the changes that come about. The key sandhis are those of the final 't' त् 'n' न् and 'm' म् 

त् remains a त् before  क् ख् त् प् फ् and स् There is no change in it - it will appear as a half 't' as it does in Hindi:  

तत् + कर्म becomes तत्कर्म

तत् + पतति becomes तत्पतति

तत् + फलम् becomes तत्फलम्

एतत् + कदा becomes एतत्कदा

However if the त् is followed by another त् it will become a double tt - त्त, exactly as we are used to in Hindi: For example:

तत् + तत् becomes तत्तत्

तत् + तदा becomes तत्तदा 

If the त् is followed by a vowel, it will become a द्

मत् + इदम् becomes मदिदम्

मत् + अस्ति becomes मदस्ति 

अस्मात् + आसीत् becomes अस्मादासीत्

तस्मात् + ऋषि becomes तस्मादृषि

(please don't forget that ऋ is a vowel!!)

In addition there is a series of almost 20 consonants before which त् will become a द् . (In Paninian terms I refer to the हश् pratyahaara) At our level you are most likely to meet about 9 of these. The two consonants will conjoin and appear just like they do in Hindi: for instance: 

त् --->  द् + य् = द्य

त्  --->  द् + व् = द्व

त्  ---> द् + र् = द्र 

त् ---> द्  + भ् = द्भ्

त् ---> द्  + ब् = द्ब

त् ---> द्  + द् = द्द

Let us look at some examples:

युष्मत् + धनम् becomes युष्मद्धनम्

वृक्षात् + भूमिः becomes वृक्षाद्भुमिः

अपतत् + यदा becomes अपतद्यदा 

अभवत् + राजा becomes अभवद्राजा 

तत् + वचनम् becomes तद्वचनम्

त् also changes before specific consonants - each has a formal grammatical name, but as you know, in this course our objective is to learn the fundamentals first. You'll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to acquire the formal grammar terminology both in Sanskrit and English, once you know what's actually going on! At least that was my experience.

त् if followed by a च् itself becomes a च् ---> तत् + च् = तच्च्

त् if followed by a ज् itself becomes a ज् ---> तत् + ज् = तज्ज्

त् if followed by a न् or a म् itself becomes a  न् ---> तत् + न = तन्न and तत् + म = तन्म

तत् + चरति = तच्चरति

आसीत् + जीवति = आसीज्जीवति 

अभवत् + नमति = अभवन्नमति

अभवत् + मित्रम् = अभवन्मित्रम्

Now just a few more to go with त् ...

त् + ल् becomes तल्ल्

त् + श्  are BOTH replaced by च्छ

त् + ह् are  BOTH replaced by  द्ध्

Some examples:

तत् + लीला = तल्लीला

त्वत् + लिखति = त्वल्लिखति

तत् + श्रुत्वा = तच्छ्रुत्वा

तत् + शान्ति = तच्छान्ति

तत् + हस्तिन् = तद्धस्तिन्

मत् + हरि = मद्धरि

Top tip for today: In all sandhi if you say the word aloud slowly two or three times you will automatically be able to tell what the component words are. Try these:

तद्राक्षसः

अभवज्जितः

अस्मच्च

Now for sandhi of the final 'n' न्. If followed by a च् both coalesce into a nasal and a श् like so:

तान् + च् = तांश्च (the sh+ch might appear as श्च of course)

And न् If followed by a त् it become a nasal + स् like so:

तान् + त् = तांस्त्

A न् if followed by a ज् or a श् becomes a ञ (I couldn't put a halant on this, sorry! but of course there is meant to be one.)

रामान् + जलम् = रामाञ्जलम्

If a final इन् or अन् meets a vowel, theन् doubles:

अभवन् + इति = अभवन्निति

तस्मिन् + एव = तस्मिन्नेव

A न् followed by a ल् will give you a double ल्ल, and a chandrabindu on top - sorry I couldn't do this on the typing system I use -but the description should suffice.

And finally the sandhi of the final 'm' म्

If followed by a vowel it will simply join up with the vowel in a manner familiar to all Hindi speakers: 

म् + अ, आ, उ, ऊ etc = म मा मि मी मु मू etc

And if it is followed by ANY consonant, it will become an anusvaara अनुस्वार.

So रामम् + अस्ति = राममस्ति

but रामम् + वा ---> रामं वा

At this juncture another top tip - all consonants, very much like the 'm' example combine with the initial vowel of the next word.  So in verses you have to be very careful. The most famous example of course is अभ्युथानमधर्मस्य from यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य, (BG IV:7) where in the second part of the verse it is a-dharmasaya that is being talked about rather than dharmasya as it seems from the word.

अभ्युथानमधर्मस्य =   अभ्युथान् + अधर्मस्य