Simple Sanskrit / Lesson 9

Simple Sanskrit – Lesson 9

सरलं संस्कृतम् – नवमः (९) पाठः  |

Mention of past tense was made in the previous Lesson 8,

1. in the context of the question, “How many people were there ?” कति जनाः आसन् ?
2. also in the context “The proposal was accepted by some people.”  प्रस्तावः कतिभिश्चित् जनैः स्वीकृतः |
3. There is past tense also in the sentence विष्णुः त्रेधा निदधे पदम् i.e. विष्णु put his foot at three places.
4. Also in “I had wings grown on me” संजातपक्षः अभवम् |
5. Also in “In how many pieces did the wood-cutter break the log ?” दारुकर्मिणा दारुः कतिशः विभक्तः ?

Past tense in these five examples can be classified into 2 classes,

• In sentences 1, 3 and 4 there is a verb inflected in past tense.

• In sentences 2 and 5, स्वीकृतः (= was accepted) and विभक्तः (literally, ‘was broken’) are verbal derivatives, which serve the function of verb. Hence no verb is explicit.

This concept of verbal derivative धातुसाधित is a great concept. It makes the construction so crisp and simple !

As can be seen, स्वीकृतः (= was accepted) and विभक्तः (literally, ‘was broken’) have passive voice in-built. Such verbal derivative धातुसाधित with past tense and passive voice in-built is called as Past Passive Participle (ppp). Even in sentence 4 there is a ppp संजात. Use of ppp’s is quite commonplace in Sanskrit. It is often readily recognizable from the ending त. The word धातुसाधित is itself a ppp :-) !

In passive voice actual doer, the subject of active voice is mentioned with the preposition ‘by’. For example,

• “The proposal was accepted by some people.” The subject doing ‘accepting (or acceptance)’ is ‘some people’. In passive it gets the preposition ‘by’. So, here we have ‘by some people’.
• In Sanskrit, function of the preposition ‘by’ is served by Third case तृतीया विभक्ति. कतिभिश्चित् जनैः are in Third case, here plural.
• In “दारुकर्मिणा दारुः कतिशः विभक्तः ?” (In how many pieces was the log broken by the woodcutter ?) ‘by the woodcutter’ दारुकर्मिणा also is in Third case.

As can be seen, ppp’s are adjectives.

• In प्रस्तावः कतिभिश्चित् जनैः स्वीकृतः the ppp स्वीकृतः is adjective of प्रस्तावः.
• In दारुकर्मिणा दारुः कतिशः विभक्तः the ppp विभक्तः is adjective of दारुः.
• Between adjective and qualified noun the rule यल्लिङ्गं  यद्वचनं  या  च  विभक्तिर्विशेष्यस्य । तल्लिङ्गं  तद्वचनं  सा  च  विभक्तिर्विशेषणस्यापि ।। applies.
• As I have been emphasizing, in प्रस्तावः कतिभिश्चित् जनैः स्वीकृतः the noun प्रस्तावः is at the beginning and the adjective स्वीकृतः is at the end. But that does not matter. Which noun is qualified by the adjective is obvious from the fact that both प्रस्तावः and स्वीकृतः are masculine, first case, singular.
• Likewise, in दारुकर्मिणा दारुः कतिशः विभक्तः both दारुः and विभक्तः are masculine, first case, singular.

Another interesting point about ppp. Will there be a ppp of an intransitive verb ? The question arises, because in English, there cannot be passive voice of intransitive verbs. This is no problem in Sanskrit ! A commonplace example is of verb ‘to go’. In English ‘to go’ is intransitive. Sanskrit धातु for ‘to go’ is गम्. Its ppp is गत. In Sanskrit the place which is gone to or the way or path which is gone by are taken as objects. For example, for the sake of understanding the charm of Sanskrit ‘I went to school’ should be put in passive voice as ‘The school was gone to by me’. Then it becomes simple to put it in Sanskrit. मया पाठशाला गता | So we have a sweet, simple sentence in Sanskrit for translation of ‘I went to school’ by using a ppp, combining therein the past tense and the passive voice.

This brings to mind an interesting quote महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः This quote has been discussed in detail in Lesson No. 58 at http://slabhyankar.wordpress.com/ In the context of ppp, we have in this quote गतः which is adjective of पन्थाः. Actually this quote is interesting, because except for येन, all the other 4 out of 5 words are masculine, first case, singular पुंल्लिङ्गम् प्रथमा विभक्तिः एकवचनम्.
महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः –

• महाजनो = महाजन: masculine, first case, singular of noun महाजन
• येन = masculine, third case, singular of pronoun यत्
• गतः = masculine, first case, singular of ppp गत
• स = स: = masculine, first case, singular of pronoun तत्
• पन्थाः = masculine, first case, singular of noun पथिन्. Note this is a consonant (न्)-ending प्रातिपदिक, meaning ‘path, way’

Meaning of महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः can be interpreted in two different ways, depending upon two different modes of syntax or two different sequences for arranging the words.

1. महाजनो येन गतः, स पन्थाः = The path or the way, the great people went, is (the path).
   • meaning The way (to go by) is the way (by which) great people went.
2. महाजनो येन स पन्थाः गतः = Great is the person, who went that way.

The quote is actually from an episode in श्रीमन्महाभारतम् It is the answer given by युधिष्ठिर in reply to a question “कः पन्थाः ?” by यक्ष, who claimed to be the master of a lake and would not allow thirsty युधिष्ठिर to partake of the water, unless युधिष्ठिर would answer a few questions. Complete answer of युधिष्ठिर was –

तर्कोऽप्रतिष्ठः श्रुतयो विभिन्नाः ।

नैको मुनिर्यस्य मतं प्रमाणम् ।

धर्मस्य तत्त्वं निहितं गुहायाम् ।

महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः ॥

(Meaning – Science of Logic is not definitive; the scriptures are many and varied; there is no one sage, whose saying can be taken as the norm; code of righteous conduct is enshrined in cave (or in mystery). Hence the way to go is the way a great person has gone by.)

Is this too much of ppp and the passive voice in-built therein ? One need not be overawed by the passive voice of ppp. Sanskrit provides an option of an active voice participle also, and in past tense. Active Past Participle (app) is derived from ppp by affixing a suffix वत् to the ppp. For example गतवत् is app derived from ppp गत. The procedure is simple.

Table 9-1

Use of ppp and app

Note

• in मया पाठशाला गता the noun-adjective pair is पाठशाला गता
• In अहं पाठशालां गतवान् the noun (or pronoun)-adjective pair is अहं गतवान्.
• This is perfectly according to the passive and active voice constructs.
• गतवान् is masculine, first case, singular of गतवत्.
• गता is feminine, first case, singular of गत.
• गत, गता, गतवत्, गतवान् seem to be similar to ‘gone’ in English. However there is a difference. In English ‘gone’ is not complete by itself, nor can it stand by itself. It is an appendage as in “is gone”, “has gone”, etc. As against this, गत, गता, गतवत्, गतवान् when inflected are complete; they can stand by themselves. They are adjectives. I do not know what ‘gone’ is in English grammar. Possibly ‘gone’ is a participle. In Sanskrit dictionaries also गत is mentioned as a participle, pp, possibly following the style set by English grammarians.
• Truly speaking गत is an adjective कर्मणि-भूतकालवाचक-धातुसाधित-विशेषणम् (क. भू. धा. वि.) Certainly क. भू. धा. वि. is far better refined than a ‘participle’. That is what Sanskrit is – ‘refined’ ! Note, कर्मणि stands for Passive (Voice प्रयोग)
• By that token, गतवत् is कर्तरि-भूतकालवाचक-धातुसाधित-विशेषणम् (क. भू. धा. वि.). Note, कर्तरि stands for Active (Voice प्रयोग)

Having said, “gone’ is an appendage as in ‘is gone’, ‘has gone’ etc. brings into discussion the aspect that in English all tenses, Past, Present, Future have four sub-types, such as Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. Now that we are discussing Past Tense, question arises about Sanskrit equivalents of Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous.

Table 9-2

Sanskrit equivalents of Past Simple, Past Continuous,

Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous

As can be seen the four types of Past Tense still do not cover the Past Tense as in विष्णुः त्रेधा निदधे पदम्
Actually there is a fundamental conceptual difference in Sanskrit connotation of types of Past Tense. This is one reason why my attempt at giving Sanskrit-equivalents for Types 2 and 4 in above table led me to coin them identical.

It comes to mind that possibly English type ‘Past Continuous’ implies some continuity of another action apart from given one of ‘He was going’. For example, ‘As he was going, his friend came by.’ सः गच्छन् आसीत् तदा एव सुहृदः आगतः or तस्य गच्छतः सुहृदः आगतः The latter style तस्य गच्छतः सुहृदः आगतः wherein तस्य and गच्छतः are both in Sixth case is called as सत्-षष्ठी construct.

If one action has already just happened and another action takes place, e.g. ‘He went and his friend came by.’ or ‘After he went, his friend came by’, or ‘As he went, his friend came by’; then one would say, तस्मिन् गते सुहृदः आगतः Here, तस्मिन् and गते both are in Seventh Case. This is called as सति-सप्तमी construct.

As can be seen, both सत्-षष्ठी and सति-सप्तमी constructs are equivalents of the sub-clauses ‘As he was going’, ‘After he went’. As can be seen, ‘he went’ is Past Simple. But significance of ‘After’ in ‘After he went’ is not brought out in the Types of Past Tense in English.

We should bear in mind that every language has some unique concepts. So, exact equivalent of every other construct in one language may not be available in another language.

In Sanskrit there are three types of Past Tense

1. अनद्यतन (also called as लङ्) e.g. He went (in recent past) सः अगच्छत्
2. परोक्ष (also called as लिट्) e.g. He went (long ago) सः जगाम
   1. Dictionary meaning of परोक्ष is out of or beyond the sight (of the speaker).
   2. For example, if I should be telling “Pandava-s went to forest”, the way to say would be पाण्डवाः वनं जग्मुः
   3. In Mahabharata, Muni Vyasa would have written पाण्डवाः वनं अगच्छन् using अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense, because he had himself seen it all.
   4. At this initial stage of learning ‘Simple Sanskrit’, one need not worry much about the fine difference between अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense and परोक्ष (or लिट्) past tense.
   5. Even when saying so, it comes to mind that the concept of परोक्ष (or लिट्) past tense, “out of or beyond the sight (of the speaker)” is improbable for first person (I, we) and second person (you) pronouns. So, inflections in परोक्ष (or लिट्) past tense are irrelevant for these pronouns. That makes learning परोक्ष (or लिट्) past tense also simple. One needs to primarily learn the three inflections of only the third person.
3. लुङ् (for which English grammarians have given the name Aorist) e.g. सः अगमत्. Use of Aorist past is rare in Sanskrit itself. So, one need not worry much about it, at least at this initial stage of learning ‘Simple Sanskrit’.

At this initial stage of learning ‘Simple Sanskrit’, it is adequate to learn only the अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense and the three inflections in परोक्ष (or लिट्) past tense for third person pronouns. The detailing here is primarily to appraise of these details, so that one would not become askance, if one comes across these usages when reading Sanskrit literature.

All inflections in अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense have an adjunct अ. Now, here is an interesting logic that comes to mind for अ to have been chosen as an adjunct. The letter अ is used as an adjunct also to make opposites, antonyms of positive concepts, e.g. असत्य (untruth, falsehood) is negative, opposite, antonym of सत्य (truth). When plotting a time-scale, if we place zero for ‘now’ or for the present tense, everything of the past would be plotted on the negative side of ‘zero’. So past tense is negative side the अ-side of present tense. So, अ becomes a good adjunct to obtain inflections in अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense !

It would be good to enlist three परोक्ष (or लिट्) inflections and all nine inflections in अनद्यतन (or लङ्) past tense for all the 25 धातु-s listed in Lesson 1 and 2.

Table 9-3

Inflections in लिट् and लङ् past tenses for 16 धातु-s listed in Lesson 1

Before proceeding with the balance 9 धातु-s listed in Lesson 2, we should make note of some interesting and important observations.

1. Whereas the inflection of गम् is अगच्छत्् that of आ + गम् is आगच्छत्. This is because the adjunct अ is always to be affixed closest to the main verb, i.e. after the prefix उपसर्ग such as आ. So आगच्छत् is actually आ + अगच्छत्. One can appreciate that आ + अगच्छत् becomes आगच्छत््
2. Similar is the case with
   1. प्रत्यगच्छत् which is प्रति + अगच्छत्
   2. उपाविशत् which is उप + अविशत्
   3. उदतिष्ठत्  for the verb उत् + स्था. It is to be appreciated that उदतिष्ठत् is उत् + अतिष्ठत्.
3. These are all sandhi-s. In formation of verb-forms, especially for forming लङ्-inflections of verbs with prefixes, it is compulsory to form the sandhi-s.

Table 9-4

Inflections in लिट् and लङ् past tenses for 9 धातु-s listed in Lesson 2

With the known pronoun-inflections and लिट् and लङ् inflections of 25 धातु-s as above, it would be possible to practise making many, many sentences in लिट् and लङ् past tenses. Inflections of pronouns in their first case serve as handy subjects for practising making crisp sentences. The inflections in first case, which we have already studied are –

1. (उ. पु.) अहं आवां वयं
2. (म. पु.) त्वं युवां यूयं
3. (म. पु. पुं.) भवान् भवन्तौ भवन्तः
4. (म. पु. स्त्री.) भवती भवत्यौ भवत्यः
5. (म. पु. नपुं.) भवत् भवती भवन्ति
6. (प्र. पु. पुं.) सः तौ ते तथा एषः एतौ एते तथा अयं इमौ इमाः तथा असौ अमू अमी तथा कः कौ के
7. (प्र. पु. स्त्री.) सा ते ताः तथा एषा एते एताः तथा इयं इमे इमाः तथा असौ अमू अमू: तथा का के काः
8. (प्र. पु. नपुं.) तत् ते तानि तथा एतद् (एनद्) एते (एने) एतानि (एनानि) तथा इदं इमे इमानि तथा अदः अमू अमूनि तथा किम् के कानि
9. The list above makes 66 subject-words. With 25 धातु-s one can make 1650 sentences in लङ् past tense and
10. Leaving out the 6 subject-words in items 1 and 2, we still have 60 pronoun subject-words and 25 धातु-s to practise making 1500 sentences in लिट्  past tense,
11. total 3150 sentences in लिट् and लङ् past tenses together !

Sentences can also be formed with other pronouns as सर्व अन्यत्, etc. and संख्यावाचकानि such as एक द्वि त्रि, etc.

There is one more indeclinable of past tense, a verbal derivative धातुसाधितं भूतकालवाचकं अव्ययम् equivalent to the English construct of “after + gerund” e.g. after going गत्वा. The derivative is obtained by affixing a suffix त्वा and is hence called as त्वान्त-अव्ययम्

• However, if there is a prefix with the verb, e.g. आ + गम्, then the suffix used is ‘त्य’ not त्वा. The धातुसाधितं भूतकालवाचकं अव्ययम् then is आगत्य

All the 25 धातु-s we have been practising with are of a class called as परस्मैपदी. The other class of धातु-s is called as आत्मनेपदी. When a धातु can be inflected by both classes, such धातु is called as उभयपदी.

For the 25 परस्मैपदी धातु-s we have studied

• their inflections in present tense,
• their inflections in imperative mood, and
• in this lesson their inflections in लिट् and लङ् past tenses.
• And we have been introduced to four types of धातुसाधित-s
  • ppp i.e. कर्मणि-भूतकालवाचक-धातुसाधित-विशेषणम् such as गत
  • app i.e. कर्तरि-भूतकालवाचक-धातुसाधित-विशेषणम् such as गतवत्
  • Use of a धातुसाधित such as गच्छत् to obtain some equivalents of Past Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous
  • धातुसाधितं भूतकालवाचकं अव्ययम् such as गत्वा or आगत्य. Note, that these are called as त्वान्त and ल्यबन्त respectively.

All these inflections and derivatives will be there for आत्मनेपदी धातु-s also.

There was also in this lesson a mention of सत्-षष्ठी and सति-सप्तमी constructs, since there is a tinge of past tense in these. These constructs do need use of धातुसाधित such as गच्छत् in sixth and seventh षष्ठी and सप्तमी cases.

This lesson thus prompts the study to proceed to study of

• आत्मनेपदी धातु-s
• धातुसाधित-s also called as कृदन्त-s.
  • By the way, there are more varieties of these apart from the four types mentioned
• संधि-s, since they are compulsory in लङ् -inflections of धातु-s having prefixes.
  • Of course we have much more comprehensive use of संधि-s in Sanskrit.

शुभमस्तु !

-o-O-o-