Lesson 14

Beginning Prayers:

• शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुम् - shuklaambaradharaM viShNum
• सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhyam 
• गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः - gururbrahmaa gururviShNuH 

Topic Summary:

• Colors in Sanskrit
• Vibhakti pratyaya-s

Home Work:

• Practice the words for colors as and when you see colors around you!
• Practice saying the raama shabda till 'tRutIyaa vibhakti'

Topic Details:

Learning colors in Sanskrit makes it fun, because it can be reinforced in the mind each and every time a color is seen!  Below is the list of colors and their Sanskrit equivalents -

Colors  -  वर्णानि  varNaani  Red  -  रक्तः raktaH Blue  -  नीलः nIlaH Green  -  हरितः haritaH Yellow  -  पीतः pItaH Orange  -  नारङ्गः naara~ngaH Brown  -  पिङ्गलः pi~ngalaH Pink  -  पाटलः paaTalaH Purple  -  धूमलः dhUmalaH Grey  -  धूसरः dhUsaraH Black  -  कृष्णः kRuShNaH White  -  श्वेतः  shwetaH While making a sentence, one could make it in different cases - nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative. These are called 'vibhakti-s' in Sanskrit. There are 7+1 vibhakti-s in all. Unlike in English, where the case of the sentence depends on the different words used in the sentence, in Sanskrit, the case of the sentence is imbibed in the word itself! That means, the vibhakti-s (called pratyaya-s) are conjoined to the word (called prakRuti) itself, to get a special word for each case. Each case has 3 grammatical numbers - singular (ekavachanam), dual (dwivachanam) and plural (bahuvachanam).  Notice that the 'dual' is special to Sanskrit alone.  There is no special term for 2 of anything in English.  But in Sanskrit, if the noun is referring to two of anything, the dual grammatical number is used. Below is a table which shows the 'raama' shabda in it's first 3+1 different declensions - अकारान्तः पुंलिङ्गः राम शब्दः विभक्तिः एकवचनम् द्विवचनम् बहुवचनम् प्रथमा रामः रामौ रामाः सं.प्रथमा हे राम हे रामौ हे रामाः द्वितिया रामम् रामौ रामान् तृतिया रामेण रामाभ्यां रामैः The first vibhakti (prathamaa) is used to make sentences in Nominative case, where the word is used as the subject. The sambodhanaa prathamaa vibhakti, a variant of the first, is used to make sentences in Vocative case, where the prakRuti is used to address the person/noun. The second vibhakti (dwitiyaa) is used to make Accusative case sentences, where the noun marks the direct object of a transitive verb. (..to...) The third vibhakti (tRutIyaa) is used to make Instrumental case sentences, to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means, by or with, which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.(..by/with...) Will continue with the rest of the vibhakti-s in the next lesson.  Keep practicing to say the 'raama shabda' out loud. Ending prayer:  ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् - aum pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam ____________________________________________________