Thread on Sanskrit Grammar ~

I will make a continuing thread that will keep getting updated containing all of Sanskrit Grammar, explained concisely and precisely with Hindi translations where need. For anyone who wishes to learn Sanskrit. You can peruse this thread for reference

Let's get into it

Sanskrit nouns have one of 3 genders. (masculine, feminine, neutral).They have 3 numbers (singular, dual, plural). Dual number is for 2 people. Plural is for 3 onwards. The genders usually are commonsense (a puruṣa is mas, strī is fem, vastra is neutral)

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What are nouns? nouns are called संज्ञा (saṃjñā) & can identify people, places, (common nouns), names (proper nouns) or emotions (abstract nouns). Nouns come in one of 3 genders mentioned above (m. f. n.) in 3 persons (s. d. p.).

Note –– (s-singular, m-masculine, d-dual etc)

I won't repeat the abbreviation again. So do note them. So noun is easy to understand. Thomas is a proper noun. Thames is a proper noun. River is a common noun. Bridge is a common noun. England is a proper noun. India is a proper noun. Got it?

Noun – 1 gender, 3 number variation

I hope you paid attention to "1 gender, 3 number variation" – gender of nouns is **fixed** & cannot change. A puruṣa is masculine & will stay so. A boy is masculine. But, numbers *can vary*

Boy / लड़का - 1 number
Boys / लड़के - Plural

in Sanskrit there will be a "dual" also

Dual number meaning? instead of 2 boys, you just have a noun ending that is added, meaning 2 boys. Get it? Don't worry, will make sense soon. Now, I hope you remember–– nouns have fixed gender & 3 number variations.

Isn't gender always fixed? Nope.. let's get to adjectives.

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What is an adjective? Something that describes a noun
(ad = next to)

In Skt, adjectives usually decline or "lean on" the noun they are modifying. Meaning? An adj. will have same gender, same number as the noun it modifies.

Adjectives can move among all 3 genders (mfn.)

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So when an adjective is describing a masculine noun, it will take on masculine gender. When it is describing a feminine noun, it will take on feminine gender. When it is describing a neutral noun, it will take a neutral gender.

It will "mirror" the number of its noun too.

Let us see an example of this. The adjective shevta (श्वेत) means 'white' and is (mfn.)

The noun कुक्कुर (kukkura) = dog. So if shveta modifies dog. It will be masculine.

The noun लता (latā) = vine & is feminine. (Notice the aa ending)

If shveta modifies लता.. it will be?

Right! it will be feminine! The noun kamalam (कमल) is neutral. If shveta modifies kamalam, how will it change?... Right it will become neutral!

श्वेतः कुक्कुरः – white dog (masculine)
श्वेता लता – white vine (feminine)
श्वेतम् कमलम् – white lotus (neutral)

These are all in singular number. Now.. naturally you will ask.. How to tell what is masculine, what is feminine, what is neutral? What ending is singular, what is dual, what is plural?

This will be explained soon, before which one last thing is left. "Cases" / vibhakti

So what is a case? It is an ending that is **fixed** & added to nouns, adj. in all 3 genders in all 3 numbers. In Hindi, this is called कारक & there are 8 of these. Do you remember them from school?

1.कर्ता
2. कर्म
3. करण
4. संप्रदान
5. अपादान
6. संबंध
7. अधिकरण
8. संबोधन

So what does this mean? Cases / कारक signify relation of nouns with other parts the sentence. In Hindi and English, these 'cases' are actually prepositions & postpositions.

from Jason, जेसन से
by Jason, जेसन के द्वारा / से
In Jason, जेसन में

Now, is it clearer?

So what is the difference in cases of Hindi/English & Sanskrit? In Sanskrit, these cases are fixed to the noun & permanent. They do not change once added. In english we use prepositions (by, with, to, from, in). In Hindi we use noun + postpositions (se, mein, ke dvaara)

So there are 8 cases in Sanskrit. Each noun can be declined in all 8 cases in 3 numbers in its particular gender.

Adjectives can be declined in all 8 cases in 3 numbers in 3 genders (remember, they are mfn.)

This is an example case table of the word "देव" (masculine)

Now notice, we do not call the cases as "karta, karm, sampradaan" of Hindi in Sanskrit. They're called vibhakti (prathamā, dvitiya, tritiya) etc..

Now, I want you to memorize this chart if you speak Hindi.

Look closely.

कर्ता - ने
कर्म् - को
संप्रदान - के लिये, को

Memorize!

So far you've understood, Sanskrit has 8 cases. What they do. 3 genders. nouns, adjectives. adjectives modifying themselves to match their nouns. 3 numbers. karaka in Hindi and their endings. Vibhakti.

Will continue next time with brief explanation on cases.

To continue, let us establish one thing. In Sanskrit, there is “inherent vowel” to every consonant. To indicate a sound without the “a” you add a virama/halant

क - ka
क् - k
व - va
व् - v

All nouns, adjectives in Sanskrit are declined based on what the last letter is.... How?

Meaning- whatever the last sound of a noun/adjective, it will be declined accordingly.

Example?

देव - द् + ए + व् + अ

What’s the last sound? अ ~

What is the /a/ declension called? It is the “a-ending masculine declension”

This picture below is of the a-masculine table!

You notice the first line? akārānt (ending in a) masculine (pulliṅgam). There are many more such declension tables with different endings.

Let us make one thing clear. All the different tables have NO semantic difference in meaning, just difference in endings.

We will use the a-ending masculine to understand what the 8 cases are.

NOMINATIVE CASE I: प्रथमा विभक्ति

The nominative endings for singular, dual, plural are respectively —

ः - singular (: = “h”)
औ - dual
आः - plural

So, what would be S,D,P of Nom. Case of देव ? ...

It would be देवः (singular), देवौ (dual), देवाः (plural)

Ok.. got that. But what does this mean? Nominative Case is also Karta Kaarak in Hindi. Any noun with these endings is the **doer** of an action in the sentence.

The person/thing who does the action, executes the verb!!