Lesson 76

Beginning Prayers:

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

Topic Summary:

• Analyzing the 1st verse of saMkShepa raamaayaNam

Home Work:

• Try and analyze any verse you can think of 

Topic Details:

The lessons so far have set a basis for further study.  The discussions further will be more focused on the verses from saMkShepa raamaayaNam

The very first verse of the book is as follows -

तपस्स्वाध्यायनिरतं तपस्वी वाग्विदां वरम् ।
नारदं परिपप्रच्छ वाल्मीकिर्मुनिपुङ्गवम् ।१।
tapasswaadhyaayanirataM tapasvI vaagvidaaM varam |
naaradaM paripaprachCha vaalmIkirmunipu~ngavam |1|

In order to understand the verse, one has to break the sandhi and samaasa of the words in the verse form.  Upon breaking the words (pada vichCheda / pada vigraha) the following form of the verse is attained

तपः-स्वाध्याय-निरतं तपस्वी वाग्विदां वरम् ।
नारदं परिपप्रच्छ वाल्मीकिः मुनि-पुङ्गवम् ॥
tapaH-swaadhyaaya-nirataM tapasvI vaagvidaaM varam |
naaradaM paripaprachCha vaalmIkiH muni-pu~ggavam ||

The verb here is
परिपप्रच्छ - it is in parokSha bhUta kaala - लिट् लकार

The adjective always follow the vibhakti (case) of the noun it is referring to!  (This the basic difference from any other colloquial language vs. samsKrutam.)  As per this rule, by putting the words in same case together, these below questions could be answered thus.

कः परिपप्रच्छ? - वाल्मीकिः परिपप्रच्छ
कीदृशः वाल्मीकिः? - तपस्वी वाल्मीकिः
कं परिपप्रच्छ? - नारदं परिपप्रच्छ
कीदृशं नारदं परिपप्रच्छ? - मुनिपुङ्गवं, वाग्विदां वरं, तपस्स्वाध्यायनिरतं नारदं परिपप्रच्छ

To further break down the individual adjectives to make more sense of the verse, one could say

गौ -> गवः -> पुङ्गवः  (bull; best among cows)
मुनिषु पुङ्गवः = मुनिपुङ्गवः (bull among muni-s)
(सप्तमी तत्पुरुष समास)

वाक् + विदाम्  = वाग्विदाम्  (knowledgeable ones)
(जश्त्व सन्धि)

वरम् = श्रेष्ठ (best)

तपः च स्वाध्यायः च - तपस्स्वाध्यायौ
(द्वन्द्व समास)

तपस्स्वाध्यायोः निरतः = तपस्स्वाध्यायनिरतः (indulged in penance and self study)
(सप्तमी तत्पुरुष समास)

वाल्मीकिः मुनिपुङ्गवम् = वाल्मीकिर्मुनिपुङ्गवम्
(विसर्ग सन्धि)

Now, the words can be rearranged as
तपस्वी वाल्मीकिः तपस्स्वाध्यायनिरतं वाग्विदां वरं मुनिपुङ्गवं नारदं परिपप्रच्छ।

A few observations here -
Even though vaalmIki wrote raamaayaNa, he has used parokSha bhUta kaala, in his own lifetime?!  There can be a couple explanations to this -
1) lava and kusha narrated the entire raamaayaNa to raama during his ashwamedha yaagam.  That could be the time when they were using this kind of a tense.
2) It is considered as 'आर्ष प्रयोग'.  The rules of grammar were formed by paaNini much later.  The lakaara and tenses were put in order only by him.  But even he, has said that if an आर्ष प्रयोग  was done, meaning, if the great seers have used it in a certain way, or if it seen in the veda-s, etc, that kind of usage is acceptable!

Will visit the next verse in the following lessons.  Until then, happy practicing!

Ending prayer:

•  ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् - om pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

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Lesson 75

Beginning Prayers:

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

Topic Summary:

• more dhaatu paaThaam
• upasarga revision

Home Work:

• Practice any 3 dhaatu-s in la~n lakaara (anadyatana bhUtakaala)

Topic Details:

To add to the dhaatu paaTham, let us see the forms of past tense - anadyatana bhUtakaalam - past, but not recent - लङ् लकार

	एकवचन	द्वीवचन	बहुवचन
प्रथम	अपठत् apaThat	अपठताम् apaThataam	अपठन् apaThan
मध्यम	अपठः apaThaH	अपठतम् apaThatam	अपठत apaThata
उत्तम	अपठम् apaTham	अपठाव apaThaava	अपठाम apaThaama

Getting back to decoding a verse, there are a few steps to follow.

• do the padavigraha as per sandhi rules
• cluster together the words in same vibhakti 
• identify the verb
• arrange the words to deduce the meaning

Let us see this with a simple example -

सुन्दरः बालः विद्यालयं गच्छति चेष्टालुः विशालाक्षः उत्तमम्।
sundaraH baalaH vidyaalayaM gachChati cheShTaaluH vishaalaakShaH uttamam|

In this sentence, by putting together the vibhakti-s, we get -
सुन्दरः विशालाक्षः चेष्टालुः बालः, उत्तमम् विद्यालयं, गच्छति।
sundaraH vishaalaakShaH cheShTaaluH baalaH, gachChati, uttamam vidyaalayaM|
A handsome wide-eyed naughty boy, goes, to the best school.
* The adjectives to a noun will follow the same vibhakti as the noun itself.

Sometimes, the same words can be split in different ways.  The below verse is a great example of how padavigraha can affect the meaning of the same words!

तमाखुपत्रं राजेन्द्र भजमाज्ञानदायकम् ।
तमाखुपत्रं राजेन्द्र भजमाज्ञानदायकम् ॥

tamaakhupatraM raajendra bhajamaaj~naanadaayakam |
tamaakhupatraM raajendra bhajamaaj~naanadaayakam ||

On first sight, it might look like a typo, with the first line repeating itself exactly the second time!  But the below padavigraha helps to understand it better.

तमाखु-पत्रं राजेन्द्र भज मा अज्ञान-दायकम् ।
तम् आखु-पत्रं राजेन्द्र भज मा ज्ञानदायकम् ॥

tamaakhu-patraM raajendra bhaja maa aj~naana-daayakam |
tam aakhu-patraM raajendra bhaja maa j~naanadaayakam ||

The first line would translate as - O king, do not resort to tobacco leaves which gives ignorance.
The second line, with a different order of padavigraha would mean - O king, resort to that gaNesha, the giver of wealth and knowledge!

tamaakhu-patram  -> tobacco leaf
tam-aakhu-patram  -> that mouse vehicled one (that gaNesha)
maa-aj~naadaayakam  -> no (to) ignorance causing
maa j~naadaayakam  -> wealth and knowledge giver

This shows the beauty and versatility of the usage of words in the verse!

The 2000 or so dhaatu-s can be regrouped as अकर्मक, सकर्मक, द्विकर्मक धातु-s.  Based on their meaning,

• अकर्मक - intransitive verbs (an action verb with no direct object) are those that do not directly associate with another object for a given subject - hasati; upaviShati; etc.
• सकर्मक - transitive verbs (an action verb with a direct object) are those that associate with one object for a given subject - gachChati; likhati; paThati; etc.
• द्विकर्मक - ditransitive verbs (verbs that with two objects) are those that associate with two objects for the same subject - vadati; pRuchChati; darshayati; etc.

* Passive voice is a beautiful voice where the object gets more highlight than the subject itself!
Instead of saying - baalakaH vidyaalayaM gachChati,
it gives a nicer touch to say - vidyaalayaH baalena gamyate!

* Revisiting upasarga-s - the prefixes, that are added to verbs.  Click here to see the list of upasarga-s as well as their effect on the dhatu-s.

Until next class, happy practicing.

Ending prayer:

•  ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् - om pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

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Lesson 74

Beginning Prayers:

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

Topic Summary:

• dhaatu-paaTham

Home Work:

• Write the dhaatu rUpa-s in laT lakaara for 4 dhaatu-s of your choice

Topic Details:

paaNini has defined each and every single rule in a beautiful suutra form in his 'aShTaadhyaayI' in 8 chapters.  He has also told them in such brevity that it is just impossible to find a redundant syllable!!  In fact, it is a famous saying among the grammarians as -

"अर्धमात्रा लाघवेण पुत्रोत्सवं मन्यन्ते वैय्याकरणाः"!
If they are able to skip even half a syllable, the grammarians celebrate as if a son was born in the family :).

He is so brief with his words that it is said, the very first suutra वृद्दिरादैच् (vRuddiraadaich) also serves as the mangaLam verse for his text!   (Apart from being the suutra for vRuddhi sandhi, it also means - in the very beginning, may there be progress.)

Let's learn more about verbs now.  Verbs are called 'kriyaapadam'-s.  The root words for the kriyaapada-s are called 'dhaatu'-s.  In samskRutam, there are about 2000 of them!  Those 2000 dhaatus are classified into 10 gaNa-s.  They can be remembered easily with this verse -

भ्वाद्यदादी जुहोत्यादि दिवादि स्वादिरेव च ।
तुदादिश्च रूधादिश्च तनादि क्री-चुरादयः ॥
bhvaadyadaadI juhotyaadi divaadi svaadireva cha |
tudaadishcha rUdhaadishcha tanaadi krI-churaadayaH ||

भ्वादि, दिवादि, तुदादि, अदादि, जुहोत्यादि, स्वादि, रुधादि, तनादि, क्री-आदि, चरादि gaNa-s

These dhaatu-s can be declined in many different tenses.  In English, there are 3 tenses only.  But in samsKrutam, tenses referred as लकार-s (lakaara-s), are 10 in number!  An easy verse form to remember them -

लट् वर्तमाने लेट् वेदे भूते लुङ् लङ् लिटस्तथा ।
विध्याशिषौ लिङ्लोटौ लुट् लृट् लृङ् च भविष्यतः ॥

There are variations in the past, present and future tenses as we know.  Based on the timing of the event in the past, there can be variations.  Near past where one was a witness, near past but one isn't a witness, distant past beyond one's lifetime even - such are the different past tenses.  Similarly, for future too!

'रूप चन्दिर्का' is a good reference book for the different dhaatu forms.

Will look into more details in the lessons further.

Until then, happy practicing.

Ending prayer:

•  ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम् - om pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

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