Lesson 4

Simple Sanskrit – Lesson 4

सरलं संस्कृतम् – चतुर्थः पाठः ।

Carrying ahead from last lesson, given below are forms for किम् in feminine and neuter genders.

Table 4-1

Forms of Feminine किम्

Table 4-2

Forms of Neuter किम्

In lessons 1 and 2 together we made simple sentences with 24 pronoun-forms. They were all of First (or Nominative case) प्रथमा विभक्ति and hence were handy to make sentences using them as subjects. It is time to learn their forms in all विभक्ति-s. These are called as declensions.

An interesting observation – Across the 63 declensions in 3 genders, the word कयोः occurs 6 times and the word काभ्याम् occurs 9 times. We can say that there are as many meanings of these words ! काभ्याम् would mean “By which two men ?, For which two men ?, From which two men ?, By which two women ? For which two women ? From which two women ? By which two things ? For which two things ? or From which two things ?

Which meaning is appropriate will of course be decided by the context.

Table 4-3

Declensions of Pronoun of First Person – अस्मद्

(Note these are common in all genders)

Some interesting observations –

• The declensions are common in all genders. This is so in English also. First person pronoun is ‘I’. Only for the Third Person, the pronouns are different – he, she, it – according to gender.
• The name of the pronoun is अस्मद् . A form closest to this is at Fifth (or Ablative case) पञ्चमी बहुवचनम्
• Optional forms are provided for Second द्वितीया, Fourth चतुर्थी and Sixth षष्ठी cases. This is so possibly because these are the cases which are in much more use than the other cases and hence optional forms come handy in composing poetry and making writing short and crisp.
• Especially when thinking of the optional form मे in the sixth case, comes to mind a ‘good verse’ सुभाषितम्
  • अशनं मे वसनं मे जाया मे बन्धुवर्गो मे | इति मे मे कुर्वाणं हन्ति कालवृको पुरुषाजम् ||
  • Meaning – A person who keeps saying “my food, my dress, my wife, my relatives” is like a goat in human form, whom the wolf of ‘Time’ devours (for sure).
  • See how beautifully and smartly the word मे , the optional form is used to bring an onomatopoeia in the poetry and also to simulate the baying मे मे of a goat, aptly calling the person a goat !
  • A good glimpse of Sanskrit poetry ?!
  • A detailed study of this सुभाषितम् is available at Lesson No. 26 at http://slabhyankar.wordpress.com/

Table 4-4

Declensions of Pronoun of Second Person – युष्मद्

(Note these are common in all genders)

The interesting observations noted for अस्मद् are valid here also –

• The declensions are common in all genders. This is so in English also. Second person pronoun is ‘You’. Only for the Third Person, the pronouns are different – he, she, it – according to gender.
• The name of the pronoun is युष्मद् . A declension closest to this is at Fifth (or Ablative case) पञ्चमी बहुवचनम्
• Optional forms are provided for Second द्वितीया, Fourth चतुर्थी and Sixth षष्ठी cases. This is so possibly because these are the cases which are in much more use than the other cases and hence optional forms come handy in composing poetry and making writing short and crisp.
• As noted in the beginning of Lesson 2, this second person pronoun is to be used, only when one is sure that one is not offending linguistic etiquette. Safer linguistic etiquette is to use the pronoun भवत् – the Respectful second person pronoun.
• Even when speaking of Respectful second person pronoun, and knowing that God is respectful, comes to mind a famous prayer
  • त्वमेव माता च पिता त्वमेव । त्वमेव बन्धुश्च सखा त्वमेव । त्वमेव विद्या द्रविणं त्वमेव । त्वमेव सर्वं मम देव देव ॥
  • All across this prayer this pronoun युष्मद् only is used. Endorsement for such offence of etiquette is possibly obtained from use of the word सखा. सखा means friend. When one is talking to a friend, one is not bound to follow the etiquettes. Rather, following etiquette becomes offensive to the concept of friendship.
  • In eleventh chapter in श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, on being blessed with the sight of imposing Universal form of भगवान् श्रीकृष्ण, अर्जुन gets a feeling of remorse and pleads pardon for having behaved with श्रीकृष्ण all along as a mere friend. सखेति मत्त्वा प्रसभं यदुक्तम् | हे कृष्ण हे यादव हे सखेति (११-४१)….. तत्क्षामये त्वामहमप्रमेयम् (११-४२). Even when pleading for pardon, अर्जुन still uses this second person pronoun, saying त्वाम्
  • Pronoun युष्मद् can very much be used, but always keeping judicious balance about when to use it.
  • Etiquette of speech is so much inherent in Sanskrit ! Marvellous !

Since we are at pronoun of second person, we should see declensions of the respectful second person pronoun भवत्.

Table 4-5

Declensions of Pronoun भवत् in masculine पुंल्लिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-6

Declensions of Pronoun भवत् in Feminine – स्त्रीलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-7

Declensions of Pronoun भवत् in Neuter – नपुंसकलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

It may be noted that except for First and Second cases, declensions in all other cases are identical for Masculine and Neuter.

On to pronouns of Third Person. First case declensions of the pronouns in Masculine (He), Feminine (She) and Neuter (It) in all three numbers have been already detailed. All the declensions in all cases and numbers are now in Tables 4-8, 4-9 and 4-10. The root name of the pronoun is तत्

Table 4-8

Masculine Declensions of Pronoun तत् – पुंल्लिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-9

Feminine Declensions of Pronoun तत् – स्त्रीलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-10

Neuter Declensions of Pronoun तत् – नपुंसकलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

The Pronoun तत् is as much a pronoun of third person as it is also an indicative pronoun, equivalent of ‘that’ in English.

Another indicative pronoun in English is ‘this’. For this indicative pronoun, there are three options in Sanskrit – एतत्, इदम् and अदस्. Somehow in common usage, these seem to be popular in this order only – एतत् इदम् and अदस्. But a student should learn them without being concerned of the degree of popularity.

By the way अदस् has both shades of meaning – that of तत् (that) and also of एतत् (this). So it is the option for both.

Table 4-11

Masculine Declensions of Pronoun एतत् – पुंल्लिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-12

Feminine Declensions of Pronoun एतत् – स्त्रीलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-13

Neuter Declensions of Pronoun एतत् – नपुंसकलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

This is the pronoun with maximum number of optional declensions.

Table 4-14

Masculine Declensions of Pronoun इदम् – पुंल्लिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-15

Feminine Declensions of Pronoun इदम् – स्त्रीलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-16

Neuter Declensions of Pronoun इदम् – नपुंसकलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-17

Masculine Declensions of Pronoun अदस् – पुंल्लिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-18

Feminine Declensions of Pronoun अदस् – स्त्रीलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

Table 4-19

Neuter Declensions of Pronoun अदस् – नपुंसकलिङ्ग-रूपाणि

With as many as 19 tabulations above, this lesson may sound to be drab. But details provided here are possibly the most useful. Most of conversations take place using pronouns.

For example, on meeting a stranger, first question one would ask would be “What is your name ?” There are two pronouns here – what and your. In Sanskrit and to ask the question respectfully, one would ask भवतः नाम किम् ? If a stranger were to ask this question to me, I would reply, “My name is Shreepaada.” In Sanskrit मम नाम श्रीपाद-इति.

If two friends are talking between them and one of them knows me, and the other person wants to know my name from his friend, he would ask his friend “What is his name ?” In Sanskrit तस्य नाम किम् ? His friend would reply तस्य नाम श्रीपाद-इति.

But consider another situation. Ramesh accompanies Suresh to Suresh’s school. Ramesh is new to the school. When looking around, he spots a respectable person. He wants to enquire with Suresh, who the person is. In English he would ask, “Who is he ?” सः कः ? But asking of a respectable person this way would not be good etiquette. He could rather enquire भवान् कः ? Suresh may reply भवान् आचार्यः “Sir is a Professor”. This becomes a good example to illustrate why the pronoun भवत् should have verbs of Third Person.

Consider yet another situation. I am accompanying my friend Ashok. We meet Ashok’s friend Deepak. Somehow Ashok forgets introducing me to Deepak. Deepak himself enquires with Ashok, “Who is this ?” How do we translate this in Sanskrit. For the pronoun ‘this’ in Sanskrit we have options. कः एषः ? or कः अयम् ? or कः असौ ? I would think that कः अयम् ? is more informal, smoother, more intimate and softer than कः एषः ? It may be noted that the vowel अ consonant य in अयम् are softer than vowel ए and consonant ष in एषः Naturally कः अयम् ? would make a softer and more decent speech than कः एषः ?

With minimum 21 declensions detailed for अस्मद् and युष्मद् and with minimum 63 declensions detailed for each of भवत् तत् एतत् इदम् अदस् किम् we have such a vast (2×21 + 6×63 = 420) repertoire of diction learnt. But we can consider all this repertoire really acquired only when we can use with ease. There is a ‘good verse’ सुभाषितम् which says –

पुस्तकस्था तु या विद्या परहस्तगतं धनम् |

कार्यकाले समुत्पन्ने न सा विद्या न तद्धनम् ||

meaning, “The knowledge which stays in the book, is like wealth in some else’s hands. When occasion demands prompt usage, that knowledge in the book and the wealth in some else’s hands, both are meaningless.” (A study of this सुभाषितम् is detailed in lesson No. 14 at http://slabhyankar.wordpress.com/)

People do not like the ‘rote learning’ method. I do not know whether there is any other method to get ease in the use of so many declensions.

One impressive thing of the structuring of so many declensions of each pronoun is that they can be recited with a beautiful rhythm. I guess, the Dual number द्विवचन also has a significance in facilitating that rhythm.

शुभमस्तु !