Guna

Unter Guṇa (Sanskrit, m., गुण, guṇa, urspr.: Schnur, Faden; später: Eigenschaft, Qualität) versteht man:

• nach dem philosophischen Konzept des indischen Samkhya die Qualitäten jener Kräfte, aus denen die Urmaterie des Swarga Loka, Prakriti, zusammengesetzt ist, s. Guna (Samkhya)
• in der Sanskrit-Grammatik die Vollstufe im qualitativen Ablaut, s. Ablaute im Sanskrit

In the Sanskrit grammatical tradition (Vyakarana), guṇa refers to a set of normal-length vowels that are less reduced than the basic set (in modern terms, the zero grade), but more reduced than the vṛddhivowels (in modern terms, the lengthened grade). As an example, ṛ, i, u are basic (zero-grade) vowels, with corresponding guṇa (full-grade) vowels ar, e, o and vṛddhi (lengthened-grade) vowels ār, ai, au. (This is more understandable once it is realized that, at an earlier stage of development, Sanskrit e and o were aiand au, and Sanskrit ai and au were āi and āu.) Guṇa corresponds to what is now termed the full grade in Indo-European ablaut. Another orthography and phonology concept related to Guṇa is Vṛddhi. These innovations are not unique to Sanskrit, but also found in Greek, Latin, Italian and to some extent Russian. Guna and other rules of language for Sanskrit are described by Pāṇini in his Ashtadhyayi.