our sanskrit About Ancient India and the Sanskrit Language (with Sanskrit Lessons) Lesson 5 — The imperfect active and vowel Sandhis © 22/01/201707/02/2018 Paramu Kurumathur fw Lessons @ Course, Imperfect, Learn Sanskrit, Lesson, Sanskrit, Sanskrit Language, Sanskrit Lesson A short YouTube version is available here (https://youtu.be/GOXSPXH|Dug). [Expand to the full article to be able to click on the link} In this lesson, the fifth one, we will learn the imperfect active of thematic verbs and vowel Sandhis. It is important to learn Sandhis as any full sentence written in Sanskrit is sure to contain Sandhis. Unless you know how to separate out the words and get their uncombined from it will be difficult to understand what is being said. The imperfect active AE (lai) TH Tay (parasmai padam) In lesson 1 (hitps://oursanskrit,com/2016/10/04/lesson-1/) we looked at the conjugation of the present active indicative. We also took a detailed look at the formation of the verb stems of root classes 1, 4, 6 and 10 and at the present middle indicative conjugation in lesson 3 (https://oursanskrit.com/2016/12/25/lesson-3/). In this lesson we will look at the imperfect active conjugation. The imperfect tense is called lai TE by the Sanskrit grammarians. The imperfect is used to indicate a past action. “Rama saw Krishna” ete. The imperfect endings are slightly different from the present endings. The endings are called secondary endings while the endings for the present are called primary endings. This is because the imperfect endings seem to a briefer version of the present endings. Of course, like the present there are two different set of endings — one for the active voice and one for the middle voice. We will learn the active in this lesson and the middle in the next. The active endings are:Conjugation - Personal Endings for Imperfect Active aE (lah) URS eA (parasmai padam) Scie irl) Po. : -(a)n (37, e Third Person +t -T -tam -L “us. A us -3Y S| Second Person -s -tam -TL -ta - "| Firstperson = -(a)m -(S1)] -va -d -ma -4 We can now see why these are called secondary endings: Instead of “ti” we have “t” instead of “si” we have “s” ete. The formation of the imperfect conjugation is done in a fashion similar to the present. Let us take the class 4 root Ypas V8R[ as we did in lesson 1. As in the case of the present, we add a “ya @” to the root to get the stem. Then add the secondary endings. The main difference is that the imperfect tense takes an augment “a 3” in the beginning. So, the stem is Vpag VO[+ ya 4—> pasya ORG. Then the endings are added. For example for the third person singular the ending t {to get pasyat URE, The the augment “a 9” is attached at the beginning to get apasyat SURE Ina similar manner we can derive the other persons and numbers. The full conjugation is given below:Conjugation - Imperfect Active Eg (lan) TRS TGA (parasmai padam) Crete ore Plural mah krsnamapaéyan ramah krsnamapasyat ramauktsnamapasyatam =‘? ee pire beset Been es ara pe eT meee ecu cad Rama saw Krishna Two Ramas saw Krishna : krishna (tvam) krsnam apasyah Cece (yayam) krsnam apasyata Second Person (Psi HR: rea (Pi HERI You saw Krishna gan rat You all saw Krishna You both saw Krishna (aham) krsnamapasyam (vam) krsnam apasyava —_(vayam) krsnam apasyama First person (38) Pi SORT, (sah wi sara (eh awl soar | saw Krishna We two saw Krishna We all saw Krishna Notes: Asin the present case, the forms for the first person dual and plural have final the vowel of the stem lengthened before adding the endings. The third person plural and the first person singular use briefer endings “n” and “m” and not “an” and am". We saw the use of the imperfect in lesson 4. tasya gardabhah atibharavahanat durbalah, mumiirsuh iva abhavat. The “abhavat” is in the imperfect singular third person. Formation of words and sentences Before we look at Sandhis let us understand the process of forming a word or a sentence in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, as we saw before, all words are analysable into roots, prefixes, derivational suffixes and inflectional endings. So 1. Stem ::= [0 to n Prefixes] + [0 to 1 Augment] + [Maybe Modified] Root + [0 to n Derivational Suffixes] = Stem* + [0 to n Stems] (this is the formation of a compound) Stem + [0 to 1 Inflectional Suffix]2, Sentence := Word + [0 to n Words] *Sometimes a declined form enters into a compound as a prior member. This phenomenon is called alak’ We will look at word and sentence formation in detail in a later lesson. Sandhi (Sf: samdhih) © A Sandhi is possible in all the places where there is a “+” above. The ending sound before the “+” and the beginning sound after the “+” may change as per euphonic laws. We touched briefly on this in lessons 1 and 3. © The Sandhi between words is called an external Sandhi, while the Sandhi within a word is called an internal Sandhi. © The rules for external Sandhi and internal Sandhi are mainly the same. But there are some differences. © Inlesson 3, we said that to form the thematic verb stem of the class 1 roots, Vbhii, Vniete., in internal Sandhi, e + a becomes aya. © vni it gunated->ne F+a H—>naya FT © but in external Sandhi, the intervening “y” is dropped and the hiatus remains © nagare + iha > nagara iha [not nagarayiha as would have happened in internal Sandhi] © In this lesson we will mainly deal with external Sandhi. We will mention any different rule for internal Sandhi if and when required. Vowel Sandhis 1. Generally, hiatus (break between vowels) is forbidden. 2. Iwo similar simple vowels coalesce to from the corresponding long vowel ° Sf (a) or SMT (a) + 8f (a) or Si (@) = 3H (a) © raja asit WoT Set—> rajasit Wome [M1 (a) + SAT (a) = SM (a)] [ There was a king] © ramasya astram WHET SAA —> ramasyastram WARIRAA [H (a) + Hf (a) = oil (a)] [Rama’s missile] © ramasya acaryah, WA STAT: > ramasyacaryah TARTU: [H (a) + Sit (a) = SAT (a)] [Rama's teacher] © raja + asti TST + Sf = rajasti Tomer [S11 (a) + Sf (a) = SH (@)] [There is a king] © mumirsuriva + abhavat > mumirsurivabhavat [From the Hitopadesha story in lesson 4] For FQ* Ber 2 @-* 0 © hititi 18+ Se = hiti fe etc. © gardabhi tiyam —> gardabhiyam [From the Hitopadesha story in lesson 4] Tu) or G (G) + F (u) or G (G) = G (a) © sadhu +uktam @Y +S = sadhaktam WYETH © suuktam § - $4 becomes siktam Ys [internal combination within a word] ° ° . Combination of “a” with following dissimilar vowels and diphthongs ° H (a) or 3H (a) +¥ (i) or $@=TEe) © ramasya +iccha WHE + $851 = ramasyeccha WT [Rama's wish] © raja— indrah US - F% becomes rajendrah, Wer%: [internal combination within a word] 3 (a) or SH (a) + U (e) or B (ai) = B (ai) °© ramasya + eva + asti WAT + Ua + SRT ramasyaivasti TAMARA [(It) is surely Rama’s] [Here you can see a +e and also a+ aj © atha + ekada —> athaikada [From the Hitopadesha story in lesson 4] © SF (a) or SI (a) +3 (u) or H (a) = HN (0) © ramasya + upanat WAR + SUM = ramasyopanat WARN [Rama's shoe] © hita—upadegah fea - SUG: becomes hitopadegah_ fFaTENT: [internal combination within a word] © Sf (a) or Sf (a) + SM(0) or Mau) = SH (au) © ramasya + osthau WAR + HBT = ramasyausthau WARNS [Rama's lips] © Si (a) or Sil (a) + B (F) = 3 (ar) © ramasya + yk WHR) + B® = ramasyark wee [Rama’s verse] © maha -ysih Hel - 3519: becomes mahar: internal combination within a word] 4, Combination of non-a and non-a vowels with dissimilar vowels and diphthongs © The vowels § (i) $ (@), 3 (u) GH (G) and (,) before a dissimilar vowel or diphthong are converted into the corresponding semivowels, 4 (y), 4 (v), ¥ (x) respectively. © Examples © iti+aha Sf+ Se =ityaha STE [(He) said thus] © madhu + iva HY+%a=madhviva Aft [Like honey] © daty+asti GIG + Sift = datrasti GIafRt [That which gives exists] © vi-usti fa - GPP becomes vyusti_OfP [internal combination within a word] © su-ista §— 3B becomes svista [RE [internal combination within a word] © nadi- au “fe — Sf becomes nadyau él [internal combination within a word] © pagyati abuddhiman -> pasyatyabuddhiman [From the Hitopadesha story in lesson 4] 5. Combination of the diphthongs with “a” © After U (e) or Sif (0) an initial H (a) disappears. The H (a) that disappears is indicated by the “avagraha” sign S. In the Roman script itis indicated by the quote sign ‘. The avagraha has no pronunciation. © Examples © te+abruvan d+ Hga=te’bruvan ISGP [They said] [Pronounced as tebruvan Aga] © so+abravit H+ s1sidlq= so’bravit som [He said] [Pronounced as sobravit Hisaiq{ | [Note: the WI (so) here stands for ¥: (sah). We will learn about how the visarga changes to “so” later] 6. Combination of U (e) and 2 (ai) with non-a vowels © Before a non-a vowel, U (e) becomes 4 (a) and @ (ai) becomes fT (a). The non-a vowel remains unchanged and the hiatus remains. That is the two words don’t combine any further!] © tebagatah @+ S{Td: = ta agatah T SIT: [They are come] © nagare + iha WR + 8 - nagara iha “FR $e [Here in the city] © tasmai +adadat TR + 3feaIe{ = tasma adadat TRA SRM [He gave it to him] © striyai+uktam faa + Ta = striya uktam Raa Ta 7. Combination of Sit (au) © St (au) becomes av 311 before yowels and diphthongs © tau+eva Ml +Ud=taveva8, Uncombinable final vowels © Some final vowels do not enter into Sandhi and remain unchanged before any following vowel or diphthong. The instances of these vowels are called WJ (pragrhya). © $(, BH (@) and U (e) of dual endings of both declensional and conjugational forms are WJ (pragrhya). © Example © hari apagyatam ®t SURI; Two Haris saw. [Here the ¥ (1) and 4 (a) don’t combine to give the form haryapasyatam_ FET8ATH which would otherwise happen] © The final § (i) of ami 3ft [nominative plural of the masculine of pronoun adas S@€{] is WE (pragrhya). © ami asvah, Sf Sf: - Yonder horses Please study the first few verses of the TSTUREIMH nalopakhyanam The story of Nala ~ that I have analysed on a first level and uploaded here (https://oursanskrit,com/2016/10/05/na%E1%B8%B7opakhyanamy). This will help you understand how to analyse Sanskrit verses. Also have a look at the quick dictionary (https://oursanskrit.com/2017/01/21 /quick-dictionary-a-few- simple-words/) that I have published. These contain a few simple words. There is also a link to a good online dictionary. Exercises: Translate into Sanskrit 1. Krishna went to the city [The object of the verb “go”, that is where the person is going to is rendered in the accusative] 2. Krishna or Rama saw the fruit 3. Where did Krishna go? 4, Hey Rama, Krishna is not here. 5. Rama, Krishna or Seeta went to the city 6 thoughts on “Lesson 5 - The imperfect active and vowel Sandhis’” 1. The magic of Panjni | our sanskrit say 26/01/2017 at 8:07 am [...] We learned in that, in Sanskrit, vowel sandhi rules require that (see Lesson 5 ): [...] Reply (https://oursanskrit.com/2017/01/22/lesson-5/?reply 2, Lesson 11 | our sanskrit says: 15/04/2017 at 11:08 am [...] In lesson 5, we learned the imperfect active of thematic verbs and vowel Sandhis. The imperfect tense is used to indicate a past action. We said that it is important to learn Sandhis as any full sentence written in Sanskrit is sure to contain Sandhis. Unless we know how to separate out the 1#respond)