Their dvanda compounds are optionally sarvanāma when the nominative plural termination jas follows.,
This is a proviso to sutra 1.1.31, and declares that before the termination जस् (which is the termination of the nominative plural, as we shall find later on, and which in the pronominals is replaced by शी), the dvandva compounds may be treated either as sarvanamas or as ordinary words. Thus the plural of वर्णाश्रमेतर may be either वर्णाश्रमेतराः or ०तरे, that is, the word may take either जस् or शी.
This sutra governs the four succeeding sutras. The option allowed in the case of the application of the affix Ist pl. to the dvandva compounds of pronominals, does not extend to the dvandva compounds of pronominal which take the affix अकच् 5.3.71. There the sutra 1.1.31 is absolute. Thus, कतरः + कतमकः = कतरकतमकाः in the plural. This affix अक (अकच्) comes before the last vowel, with what follows it, of the pronominals and indeclinables.,