Simple Sanskrit / Lesson 6

Simple Sanskrit – Lesson 6

सरलं संस्कृतम् – षष्ठः पाठः |

Declensions of अ-कारान्त masculine and neuter nouns were detailed in Lesson 5.
Declensions of nouns follow patterns, which are different depending upon its ending sound and also its gender.

By its ending sound, there will be two broad categories –

• Those having vowel-ending
• Those having consonant-ending. Among the pronouns, which were already detailed, अस्मद्, युष्मद्, भवत्, तत्, एतत्, इदम्, अदस्, किम् all of these have consonant-ending.

Among vowel-ending words, we already have a good collection of अ-कारान्त masculine and neuter nouns. In the Table 6-1 below words with ending of all vowels are compiled. Words listed in rows from आ-कारान्त and down, have been taken from the web-pages by Mr. G. S. S. Murthy, compiled at http://murthygss.tripod.com/Sabda_1.htm Mr. G. S. S. Murthy has not only listed all these words but has done a wonderful job of also detailing declensions of all of them.

Table 6-1

प्रातिपदिक-s having vowel-ending

Examples of द्यो and प्रद्यो as feminine and neuter ओ-कारान्त words and  नौ, सुनौ as feminine and neuter औ-कारान्त words are very kindly suggested by Dr. Avinash Sathaye of University of Kentucky giving reference of a book रूपचन्द्रिका. Following his suggestion, I could locate द्यो (= heaven) and नौ (= ship) in Apte’s dictionary also.

By the way, पाणिनि makes all vowel-ending words into a set by the name अजन्त (Note अजन्त = अच् + अन्त where अच् means all vowels). How अच् means all vowels, will become a different study of grammar-aphorisms. Mention here is just to appraise readers that all vowel-ending words become elements of a set, which is given a short name as अजन्त.

In the above table, one gets to notice patterns of declensions for vowel-ending अजन्त words numbered from 1 to 25. Of these we have done two patterns of अ-कारान्त पुंल्लिङ्गी and नपुंसकलिङ्गी. Actually these 25 patterns are not just for nouns, but also for adjectives. For example, in the above lists we have quite a number of adjectives such as लेखक, श्रेष्ठ, वाचक, सर्व, एक, द्वि, त्रि, कर्तृ or तृषार्त, संतुष्ट from the story of thirsty crow in previous lesson 5. For adjectives we will need to have declensions in all three genders, because these will have to qualify a noun of any of three genders. As such

• भवती is feminine of pronoun भवत्,
• We have already studied declensions of भवत्, in all cases and in all three genders.

I am doing copy–>paste of tables directly from http://murthygss.tripod.com/ (Many thanks to Mr. G. S. S. Murthy !)

Table 6-2

अकारान्तः ‘एक’-शब्दः (एक = one)

The numerical adjective एक will have common usage of declensions only in singular. I hence thought it good to save space by compiling declensions in all three genders in one table.

It may be noticed that the declensions of masculine and neuter genders are identical in all cases except in प्रथमा.

It may be also noticed that declensions of this numerical adjective एक in third, fourth, fifth and seventh cases is similar to those of the pronoun किम् and not like those of noun खग. Actually, कश्चित् काक: तृषार्त: and एकः काक: तृषार्त: convey the same meaning, right ? That may be the reason, why the declensions of numerical adjective एक are similar to those of the pronoun किम्. In fact in Apte’s dictionary, एक is detailed both as pronoun and adjective.

An indefinite numeral like सर्व will have declensions in all three genders and in all three numbers – singular, dual, plural. Although its meaning sounds to be closer to plural, we have its usage as “all that’, or ‘whole of it’, which is singular ! Aren’t grammarians very minute observers ! सर्व has declensions very similar to those of किम्. In fact in Apte’s dictionary सर्व is also detailed both as pronoun and adjective.

It is now interesting to note that the feminine प्रातिपदिक of एक is to be considered to be एका. Likewise feminine प्रातिपदिक of सर्व is to be considered as सर्वा. In fact feminine प्रातिपदिक of किम् was also का (See Table 4-1). Well, there are rules of obtaining feminine प्रातिपदिक-s for different nouns, pronouns and adjectives. For example, from common knowledge we know that बालक <> बालिका, शिक्षक <> शिक्षिका, वाचक <> वाचिका are related pairs of masculine and feminine प्रातिपदिक-s. That also gives some logic to why there are no अ-कारान्त feminine nouns. Conversely, there are no आकारान्त neuter प्रातिपदिक-s.  आकारान्त masculine प्रातिपदिक-s are there, as if only as exceptions. An example is in Table 6-3 below.

Table 6-3

आकारान्तः पुल्लिङ्ग: ‘विश्वपा’-शब्दः (विश्वपा = Protector of the Universe)

Likewise (एवं) सोमपा इत्यादयः (=etc.)

Table 6-4

आकारान्तस्त्रीलिङग: रमाशब्दः (रमा = Goddess LakShmi)

एवम् (Likewise) – अम्बिका दुर्गा सीता बाला छाया etc. (इत्यादयः)

Proceeding with words of other vowel-ending –

Table 6-5

इकारान्तः पुल्ल्लिङ्ग: हरिशब्दः (हरि = God ViShNu)

Likewise (एवम्) – अग्नि कवि रवि etc. (इत्यादयः). It should be noted that in third case singular, and sixth and seventh case plural there is ण-inflection in place of न and ष-inflection in place of  स, due to र in हरि. Such inflection will not be there for कवि.

Declensions of पति are exceptional. They need to be noted separately.

Table 6-6

इकारान्तः पुल्ल्लिङ्ग: पतिशब्दः (पति = Master, Husband)

Notable exceptions are in singulars of third to seventh cases.

Declensions of सखि also are exceptional. They need to be noted separately.

Table 6-7

इकारान्तः पुल्ल्लिङ्ग: सखिशब्दः (सखि = Friend)

Table 6-8

इकारान्तः नपुंसकलिङ्ग: वारिशब्दः (वारि = water)

Note two optional forms for address-case singular.

Word अक्षि has exceptional declensions. Hence these should be noted.

Table 6-9

इकारान्तः नपुंसकलिङ्ग: ‘अक्षि’-शब्दः (अक्षि = eye)

Table 6-10

इकारान्तः स्त्रीलिङ्ग: मतिशब्दः (मति = Intellect)

Likewise (एवम्) – बुद्धि रुचि श्रुति स्मृति etc. (इत्यादयः)
Note that there are optional declensions for singulars of fourth, fifth and seventh cases.

Having noted the declensions for इकारान्त-words in all three genders, it would be good to note the declensions of the numerical pronoun-adjectives द्वि and त्रि, which also are इकारान्त. द्वि will have declensions primarily in dual and त्रि will have declensions primarily in plural. So, we shall tabulate their declensions by columns for genders, as was done for एक.

Table 6-11

Declensions of pronoun-adjective द्वि- (द्वि = two)

Interestingly there are only four variants – द्वौ द्वे द्वाभ्याम् द्वयोः – in all the 21 declensions. That makes it simple, right ? There again declensions for six of the seven cases are same in all genders. Only in first case they are different. There too, those of feminine and neuter genders are identical.

Yet द्वि in its प्रातिपदिक-form does not appear anywhere or no declension is close enough to the प्रातिपदिक-form द्वि.

When two persons or things are together, there is the style of speaking of the pair or couple, e.g. pair of shoes. For this the Sanskrit word is द्वय e.g. हस्तद्वयम्, पादद्वयम्, कर्णद्वयम्. It should be noted that द्वय is noun primarily neuter नपुंसकलिङ्गि प्रातिपदिकम्. So, its declensions will be as per those of पुस्तक. It will have declensions in all numbers according as the number of pairs – singular, dual, plural. By that token, हस्तद्वयाभ्याम् would mean ‘by two pairs of hands, i.e. by four hands ! There is the special pair of husband and wife, for which there is a special word दंपती. As detailed in Apte’s dictionary, it is ईकारान्त पुंल्लिङ्गी प्रातिपदिक. I just added it in the Table 6-1.

Table 6-12

Declensions of pronoun-adjective त्रि (त्रि = three)

Declensions of त्रि have close correspondence with the प्रातिपदिक, त्रि. Declensions of masculine and neuter genders are common except in first and second cases.

There is also the style of speaking of a ‘trio’, three persons or things together. Sanskrit word for this is त्रय. It is an adjective and its feminine प्रातिपदिक is त्रयी, meaning a trio or triplet. The feminine प्रातिपदिक त्रयी is often used as a noun, especially referring to the three primary Vedas – ऋक् यजुः and साम – together.

There is much more to learn about numbers. That merits a separate chapter.

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