Basics

learnsanskrit.org
November 25, 2012
1
How Sanskrit Works
Learning Sanskrit is like building a massive house. Our materials are the various Sanskrit
sounds, which we combine and blend to make new materials. Our techniques are the rules of
grammar, which start out quite simply but soon become much more subtle and interesting.
And our approach is a practical one: build a basic shelter before expanding further.
But without a steady foundation, the house cannot stand. If we have even a basic
understanding of how Sanskrit generally works, we can greatly reduce our problems later on.
Moreover, this basic understanding will also help us put Sanskrit's different parts in
perspective.
So before we begin with Sanskrit itself, let's quickly discuss what the language is like.
Word order
Here is a basic English sentence:
Elephants eat fruits.
Let's see how this sentence appears in Sanskrit:
~
gaj phalni khdanti
Elephants fruit eats. ("Elephants eat fruits.")
As you can see, the came concepts appear in different orders in both languages. But
surprisingly, the word order does not matter much in Sanskrit:
~
gaj khdanti phalni
Elephants eat fruits. ("Elephants eat fruits.")
~
phalni khdanti gaj
Fruits eat elephants. ("Elephants eat fruits.")
~
khdanti phalni gaj
Eat fruits elephants. ("Elephants eat fruits.")
2
Inflection
Sanskrit is so flexible because its words carry extra information with them. We take a basic
word, like gaja ("elephant"), and somehow mark it to show two things:

There are multiple elephants.

These elephants are eating (but the fruits are not).

And likewise for phala ("fruit"):

There are multiple fruits.

These fruits are being eaten (but the elephants are not).
We add this extra information by changing part of the word: gaja becomes gaj, and phala
becomes phalni. When we change a word to add information like this, we say that we inflect
the word.
Words are inflected in English, too, but not very much. For example, we say "I play" and "you
play," but we say "he plays," not "he play." If we see just the word "plays," we can guess that
the person doing the playing is "he" or "she," but probably not "I" or "you." This is because the
word has been inflected to show who is doing the playing.
As another example, we say "I play" and "I will play," but we say "I played." The word "play"
changes to show that the playing has already happened. We can work backward fromthe word
"played" and figure that out.
Sanskrit words are inflected much more than English words. Even complex ideas can be
represented as single words:
R

~
grmn blau jigamayianti
They want to make the two boys go to the villages.
There are also uninflected words, which always remain the same:
=
sa eva gacchati
Only he goes.
3
Making words
One of Sanskrit's richest and most rewarding features is the ability to make your own words
. Starting from basic sounds and syllables, we can quickly create words of great subtlety and
nuance:

bhaj bhaga bhagavat bhgavata
adore, love adoration, love glorious, fortunate; the blessed one, Lord
concerning the blessed Lord

yuj yoga yogin

connect, bind, prepare concentration, exertion (yoga) yogin
Just as many branches grow from the same trunk, many words can grow from the same basic
elements. By learning these elements and some basic rules, we can quickly understand
thousands of new words.
4
Present Tense Verbs
Actions
Generally, every Sanskrit sentence is just some action. The simplest sentences are just actions
and nothing else:
=
gacchati
He goes.
Words that describe actions are called verbs. gacchati is a verb. So is the word below:
=
gacchata
The two of them go.
gacchati and gacchata both start the same way, with gaccha. This part of the verb is called
the stem; just as many flowers bloom from the same plant stem, many verbs are formed from
the same verb stem. We add an ending to a stem to make a complete word:
= + =
gaccha + ti gacchati
He goes.
= + =
gaccha + ta gacchata
The two of them go.
= + ~ =~
gaccha + nti gacchanti
They go.
U + U
tiha + ti tihati
He stands.
U + U
tiha + ta tihata
The two of them stand.
5
U + ~ U~
tiha + nti tihanti
They stand.
* + *
paya + ti payati
He sees.
* + *
paya + ta payata
The two of them see.
* + ~ *~
paya + nti payanti
They see.
And of course, we can talk about other sorts of people. We can talk about you:
=
gacchasi
You go.
=
gacchatha
The two of you go.
=
gacchatha
You all go.
U
tihasi
You stand.
U
tihatha
The two of you stand.
6
U
tihatha
You all stand.
*
payasi
You see.
*
payatha
The two of you see.
*
payatha
You all see.
And we can talk about me:
=
gacchmi
I go.
=
gacchva
The two of us go.
=
gacchma
We all go.
U
tihmi
I stand.
U
tihva
The two of us stand.
7
U
tihma
We all stand.
*
paymi
I see.
*
payva
The two of us see.
*
payma
We all see.
In this way, Sanskrit lets us talk about some action and the people who perform it.
The present tense
The verbs above let us describe what is happening right now. In English, these verbs are
called present tense verbs.
=
gacchati
He goes.
*
payva
The two of us see.
U
tihasi
You stand.
*
payma
We all see.
8
=
gacchata
The two of them go.
U
tihatha
You all stand.
U
tihatha
The two of you stand.
=~
gacchanti
They go.
*
paymi
I see.
These Sanskrit verbs have a broader meaning than their English counterparts:
=
gacchati
He is going.
U
tihata
The two of them are standing.
*~
payanti
They are seeing.
And they have many others too. As much as possible, we should focus on Sanskrit words and
sentences, not their counterparts in English. The more we rely on English, the less we learn
about Sanskrit itself.
The forms of this verb are often presented in a table, like the one below:
9
[3s] [3d] [3p]
[2s] [2d] [2p]
[1s] [1d] [1p]
But we have seen all of these forms already, and there is no need to linger on a table like this.
In the wild
Our goal is to read Sanskrit texts. So along the way, we will study many examples of real
Sanskrit. As we read these examples, we see new concepts in a real setting. And we can
measure how much we have learned so far.
So consider the text below. We know enough to pronounce it correctly. But how much can we
understand?
97 4 9 =
aprpya yogasasiddhi k gati ka gacchati
If he has not attained perfection in yoga, Krishna, on which path does he go?
Bhagavad Gita 6.37
Focus on the highlighted words above; the rest of the example is too difficult right now. But
even this difficult example teaches us something about Sanskrit. Note that gacchati appears at
the end of the sentence. Most verbs do. Note, too, that the anusvra appears in
yogasasiddhim without a space after it. This indicates that the anusvra can appear within a
word, not just at the end of it.
We can also recognize some familiar words, like yoga and ka. These words appear
throughout the Bhagavad Gita, and we will see them many times.
10
tmanepada
The verbs we just studied are called parasmaipada verbs. The verbs we will study below are
called tmanepada verbs. But what makes one verb different from another? And just what do
parasmaipada and tmanepada mean, anyway?
Both questions have roughly the same answer. Traditionally, tmanepada verbs are used when
the action benefits the person who performs it (tmane, "for the self"; pada just means
"word"), and parasmaipada verbs are used everywhere else (parasmai, "for another"). We
show this difference in meaning by using different verb endings:

pacati
He cooks.

pacate
He cooks for himself. (He's cooking himself a meal.)

pacata
The two of them cook.

pacete
The two of them cook for themselves.
~
pacanti
They cook.
~
pacante
They cook for themselves.
The stem is the same, but the endings are different. Just as two different flowers can
sometimes grow from the same stalk, so too can parasmaipada and tmanepada forms grow
from the same verb stem.
11
Endings
The tmanepada endings are closely related to the parasmaipada endings. They follow similar
patterns:

pacati
He cooks.

pacate
He cooks for himself. (He's cooking himself a meal.)
~
pacanti
They cook.
~
pacante
They cook for themselves.

pacasi
You cook.

pacase
You cook for yourself.
Even when these patterns are not immediately clear:

pacata
The two of them cook.

pacete
The two of them cook for themselves.
12

pacatha
You two cook

pacethe
You two cook for yourselves.

pacva
The two of us cook.

pacvahe
The two of us cook for ourselves.

pacma
We all cook.

pacmahe
We all cook for ourselves.
But in two instances, there is no pattern at all:

pacatha
You all cook.
7
pacadhve
You all cook for yourselves.

pacmi
I cook.
13

pace
I cook for myself.
Weak distinctions
The distinction between parasmaipada and tmanepada is not always strong. Some
tmanepada verbs act just like the ones we have seen so far, without any strong sense of acting
"for the self":

labhate
He obtains.

labhete
The two of them obtain.
~
labhante
They obtain.

labhase
You obtain.

labhethe
The two of you obtain.
7
labhadhve
You all obtain.

labhe
I obtain.
14

labhvahe
The two of us obtain.

labhmahe
We all obtain.
But generally these verbs do describe things that affect us, like being born, enjoying
something, dying, or simply thinking:
F
manyate
He thinks.
F
manyvahe
The two of us think.
F7
manyadhve
You all think.
F
manyete
The two of them think.
F
manyethe
The two of you think.
F
manymahe
We all think.
F
manyase
You think.
15
F
manye
I think.
F~
manyante
They think.
Traditionally, verbs are presented in a table, like the one below:
[3s] [3d] [3p]
[2s] [2d] [2p]
[1s] [1d] [1p]
But we have already seen all of these forms, and there is no need to linger on a table like this.
16
Nouns in Case 1
Generally, every Sanskrit sentence is just some action. The simplest sentences are just actions
and nothing else:
*
payati
He sees.

labhethe
The two of you obtain.
F
manymahe
We all think.
U
tihasi
You stand.
Unfortunately, these sentences tell us very little. If we see just payati, how can we tell who
sees, or what is seen? And how and where does this "seeing" happen?
To fill these gaps, we use nouns. Nouns describe ideas as simple as elephants and fruits, and as
complex as places and concepts. Just like verbs, nouns are inflected:
*
gaja payati
The elephant sees.
*
gajau payata
The two elephants see.
*~
gaj payanti
The elephants see.
17
And just like verbs, nouns have a stem. Here, the stem is gaja. Just as many flowers bloom
from the same plant stem, many nouns are formed from the same noun stem. And as with
verbs, we add an ending to a noun to make a complete word:
*
gaja payati
The elephant sees.
*
gajau payata
The two elephants see.
*~
gaj payanti
The elephants see.

nara pacate
The man cooks for himself.

narau pacete
The two men cook for themselves.
~
nar pacante
The men cook for themselves.

U ( U)
avas tihati (ava tihati)
The horse stands.
U
avau tihata
The two horses stand.

U~ ( U~)
avs tihanti (av tihanti)
The horses stand.
18
Note the blending that occurs in avas tihati and avs tihati. Now that our sentences have
multiple words, we have to be mindful of how the sounds in the two words affect each other.
Noun roles
In each example above, the noun defines what performs the verb action. But nouns can define
other parts of the action, too. With payati, for example, we can define what is seen:
*

gaja payati naram

The elephant sees the man.
Or where the elephant sees:
R *
grme gaja payati
The elephant sees in the village.
Or what the elephant sees with:
*
nayanena gaja payati
The elephant sees with his eye.
Here, the role of the noun changes when we change the noun ending. So in addition to
showing the number of items involved, the noun ending shows the noun's role. Generally,
these roles are called cases. Still, roles and cases are not quite the same thing.
Case 1
Case 1 usually defines what performs the action:
*
gaja payati
The elephant sees.
*
gajau payata
The two elephants see.
19
*~
gaj payanti
The elephants see.
payati implies that only one thing sees. gaja implies that only one elephant performs the
action. Each word implies the same number of things (one), so they are used together. A verb
and a word in case 1 must always imply the same number of things.
Blended sounds
Recall that visarga blends with the sounds that follow it:

avacarati
The horse walks.

avau carata
The two horses walk.
~
avcaranti
The horses walk.
~U
gajastihati
The elephant stands.
U
gajau tihata
The two elephants stand.
20
~U~
gajstihanti
The elephants stand.
In these examples, the consonant that comes after the visarga is not voiced. What if the
consonant is voiced instead?

nara labhate
The man obtains.
~
nar labhante
The men obtain.
Try repeating these entences ten or twenty times. Eventually it will become tiresome to
transition between the unvoiced visarga in nara and nar and the voiced l in labhate and
labhante. It is much easier to blend the two words.
For the first sentence, this blending is against all of our intuitions. It is the sort of change we
must just accept.

nara labhate naro labhate
The man obtains.
The -a ending became o. This happens in front of voiced consonants of any kind.
For the second sentence, the blending is much more reasonable:
~ ~
nar labhante nar labhante
The men obtain.
21
Here the troublesome visarga is simply removed. Sometimes the best solution to a problem is
the easiest one.
With these changes in mind, we can now write many more sentences:
F
naro manyate
The man thinks.
*
narau payata
The two men see.
F~
nar manyante
The men think.

gajo labhate
The elephant obtains.

gajau labhete
The two elephants obtain.
~
gaj labhante
The elephants obtain.
=
avo gacchati
The horse goes.
U
avau tihata
The two horses stand.
=~
av gacchanti
The horses go.
22
Case 2
Using the Sanskrit we know already, we can write a variety of sentences:
U~
tihanti
They stand.
F
manye
I think.
7
pacadhve
You all cook.
By using nouns, we can describe the things involved with this action. We just learned about
case 1, which generally describes who performs the action:

gaja carati
The elephant walks.

narau labhete
The two men obtain.
=~
av gacchanti
The horses go.
Meanwhile, case 2 usually defines the "object" of the action:
7
gaja labhadhve
You all obtain an elephant.
(m blends with p to form .)
23
*
gajau payasi
You see two elephants.
(gajau is the same in case 1 and case 2!)

*
gajn payatha
The two of you see elephants.
With verbs that imply movement (like "go" and "walk"), case 2 also defines the destination:
=
nara gacchatha
You all go to the man.

narau carmi
I walk to the two men.

=
avn gacchva
The two of us go to the horses.
And of course, we can use multiple cases at once:

vro gaja rakati
The hero protects the elephant.

=
vrau narn gacchata
The two heroes go to the men.
24

vr
You see two elephants.
Ambiguity
Above, we saw that gajau appears in case 1 and case 2. This can create ambiguities in Sanskrit,
where multiple meanings are possible:

gajau labhete
(a) The two of them obtain the two elephants.
(b) The two elephants obtain.

vrau narau rakata
(a) The two heroes protect the two men.
(b) The two men protect the two heroes
These ambiguities disappear if we know more about this sentence's context. If we do not have
enough context, then there is nothing we can do. But fortunately, these sorts of ambiguities are
also quite rare. They go away if the verb changes even slightly:

gajau labhethe
The two of you obtain the two elephants.
~
gajau labhante
They obtain the two elephants.
Table of forms
No Sanskrit textbook is complete without putting the different noun forms in a table:
[1s] [1d] [1p]
[2s] [2d] [2p]
But we have already seen all of these forms, and there is no need to linger on a table like this.
25
Cases 3 and 4
By using nouns, we can describe the things involved with an action. We have just learned
about case 1 and case 2
*
naro vra payati
The man sees the hero.
Case 1 and case 2 define very basic relationships between nouns and verbs. But the next few
cases are more interesting.
Case 3
Case 3 has two important senses. More commonly, case 3 defines how something is done:
[1]
= R

gajena gacchmi grmam

I go by means of the elephant to the village.
= R

gacchatho grmn avbhym

The two of you go by means of the two horses to the villages.
~
ava labhante narai
They obtain a horse by means of the men.
Less commonly, case 3 defines who is with the performer:
U
avena tihva
The two of us stand with the horse.
- F
vrbhy manyete
The two of them think with the two heroes.
26
7
blai pacadhve
You all cook with the boys.
This second sense can be reinforced by using saha, an uninflected word:
= R

gajena saha gacchmi grmn

I go with the elephant to the villages.
- U~
sahvbhy tihanti
They stand with the two horses.
And it can be reversed by vin. It shows who is not with the performer:
=~
icchanti vin vrai
They want without the heroes.
saha and vin should be very close to the word in case 3. Usually, they appear right after.
Blended sounds
In the examples above, notice the visarga in narai, blai, and vrai. Each visarga follows a
vowel that is neither a nor . When this occurs, the visarga becomes r in front of voiced
sounds.
7

7
gajai labhadhve gajair labhadhve
You all obtain with the elephants.
=

=
vrai gacchata vrair gacchata
The two of them go with the heroes.
=

=
blai icchatha blair icchatha
You all want with the boys.
27
This change is against all of our intuitions. It is the sort of change we must just accept. Note,
though, that the result sounds a little prettier than before.
In all other circumstances, these sorts of visargas act normally.

blai corayma
We steal with the boys.

U
gajais tihmi
I stand with the elephants.
*~
vrai payanti
We see with the heroes.
Case 4
Case 4 expresses two important ideas. The first is purpose, as in "I broke the coconut for
some water":
[2]

~
bla corayatyava narya
The boy steals the horse for the man.
= R -

gacchato narau grma gajbhym

The two men walk to the village for (two) elephants.
-
bla pacati gajebhya
The boy cooks for elephants.
The second defines the person meant to benefit fromthe cation, as in "I broke the coconut
for a friend" or "I gave the money to my brother":
*~
vr narya siha payanti
The heroes look at the lion for the man.
28
-

ava blacorayati narbhym

The boy steals the horse for the two men.
R -
coraymi grmebhya
I steal for the villages.
Compared to the other noun cases, case 4 is uncommon.

blya gaja pace
I cook the elephant for the boy.
Oh, the poor elephant! But this is just an example sentence, not real life.
-

- R =
vrbhym avbhy grma gacchatha
The two of you go with (two) horses to the village for the two heroes.
- R =
siho narebhyo grma gacchati
The lion goes to the village for men.
Stem-ending blending: n to
Consider the examples below.

narena
with the man
29

vrena
with the hero
Try repeating the first word ten or twenty times. Eventually it will become tiresome to
pronounce the retroflex r right before shifting to the non-retroflex n. It is much easier to blend
the two sounds by using the same point of pronunciation for both:

narena narea
with the man

vrena vrea
with the hero
With this in mind, we can understand the sentences below:

*
saha narevn paymi
I see the horses with the man.
U
vrea vin tihasi
You stand without the hero.
=

nareecchati gajam
They want the elephant with the man.
Note the blending in the last example: narea cchati becomes narearcchati.
Ambiguities
Recall that gajau, narau, and other such words are ambiguous:

gajau labhete
(a) The two of them obtain the two elephants.
(b) The two elephants obtain.
30
Words like gajbhym and narbhym are ambiguous, too:
- ~
narbhy pacanti
(a) They cook for the two men.
(b) They cook with the two men.
Usually, common sense is enough to tell what a word should mean.
- ~
gajbhy pacanti
They cook for the two elephants.
It is unlikely that an elephant would be cooking.
Table of forms
[1s] [1d] [1p]
[2s] [2d] [2p]
[3s] [3d] [3p]
[4s] [4d] [4p]
We have already seen all of these forms, and there is no need to linger on a table like this.
31
Cases 5 and 6
After studying case 1 and case 2, we studied two more interesting cases: case 3 and case 4. Now
let's study two more cases. After these two, there are two more to go!
Case 5
Case 5 represents the abstract idea of movement away from something.
[3]
R =

grmd gacchmi gham

I go from the village to the house.
R- =

grmbhy gacchasi ghn

You go from the two villages to the houses.
=~ R -
gacchanti nara grmebhy
They go from the villages to the man.
When used in verbless sentences, case 5 defines part of a comparison. If you like, you can
imagine that the noun in case 5 is left behind because it is less beautiful, less black, less white,
and so on.

nara siht sundara

The man is more beautiful than the lion.
- 9
avau gajbhy ka
The two horses are blacker than the two elephants.
32
-
gaj avebhya vet
The elephants are whiter than the horses.
Case 5 is usually used for places and fixed objects:

ghc carati siha
The lion walks from the house.
- ~
narbhy caranti
They walk from the two men.
- R =
ghebhyo grma vrvcchata
The two heroes go from the houses to the village.
Note the many sandhi changes in the examples above. We have seen all of these before.
Case 6
Each of the cases we have seen so far define a part of the verb action:

naracarati
The man walks.

gaja carati
He walks to the elephant.

blaicarati
He walks with the boys.

vrya carati
He walks for the hero.
33
R

grmc carati
He walks from the village.
Case 6 does not. Instead, case 6 shows that there is a connection between one noun and
another:
U

U
narasya putras tihati
The man's son stands.
R

F
grmayor vrau manyete
The two heroes of the two villages think.

4
vrm putr bhavma
We are sons of heroes.
Note the sandhi change in vrm. vrnm becomes vrm for the same reason that vrena
becomes vrea because vr is easier to say.
Case 6 has a special meaning when used in a verbless sentence:
U

4
narasya putra
The man has a son.
R

~
grmayo sundar gaj vartante
The village has beautiful elephants.
9

~
k blnm av bhavanti
The boys have black horses.
Remember, verbless sentences optionally have verbs like vartante and bhavanti. Notice what
varte does in the second example.
34
Sandhi review
We have seen and used so many kinds of sandhi so far that the process is starting to feel more
natural. But sometimes it is good to review.
Review of visarga sandhi
Here we review only the changes involved for words like narayo and narai:
*
gajai payasi
You see with the elephants.

4
gajayo putro bhavati
The two elephants have a son.

blaicaratha
You all walk with the boys.

narayocoraymi gajn
I steal the two men's elephants.
~U
vraistihva
The two of us stand with the heroes.
~U

4
vrayostihata putrau
The sons of the two heroes stand.
=
avairgacchatha
The two of you go with the horses.
35

narayoravo vartate
The two men have a horse.
But remember what happens when the next word ends in r:

narai ramate
He enjoys with the men.
Review of t sandhi
This sandhi is easy. t matches the voice of the letter that comes next:
RI=
grmdcchasi
You go from the village.
And it matches the point of pronunciation, too:
R
grmccarmi
I walk from the village.
=~
avjjyante
They are born from the horse.
36
Cases 7 and 8
Now we bring our study of the eight cases to a close, for the time being. The Sanskrit cases are
powerful and expressive, and we will learn more about them later on.
Case 7
Case 7 defines the location of the action.
R U~ -

grme tihanti gaj blbhym

The elephants stand with the two boys in the village.
R

~
grmayor bhavanti sih
Lions are in the two villages.
R

grmeu carantyav sundar

The beautiful horses walk in the villages.
When the case 1 noun refers to just one entity, the sense of case 7 changes slightly:

U~
ghayos tihanti rau
The two warriors stand in the two houses.

U
ghayos tihati ra
The warrior stands between the two houses.

U~
gheu tihanti r
The warriors stand in the houses.

U
gheu tihati ra
The warrior stands among the houses.
37
e sandhi
The letter e is simple enough:
7
ghe pacadhve
You all cook for yourselves in the house
U

4
ghe jyete narasya putrau
The man's two sons are born in the house.
F
ghe manymahe
We are thinking in the house.
Still, what happens when e is near vowels? This, too, is familiar to us already: a sentence like
grme icchanti will become grmayicchanti. But when this blending occurred between two
words, Sanskrit speakers went one step further. They thought y was a tiresome letter to have to
say between these two words, so they removed it entirely:
R =~ R =~
grme icchanti grma icchanti
They want in the village.
R =~ R =~
grme cchanti grma cchanti
They go (while being) in the village.
But recall a sentence like ka ava, which becomes ko 'va. Just as a overwhelms the
a in ava and destroys it entirely, leaving the avagraha as a reminder of what used to be
there, e does the same.
R U~ R

U~
grme av tihanti grme 'vs tihanti
Horses stand in the village.
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ghe ava bhavati ghe 'vo bhavati
A horse is in the house.
These changes make sense. But here is a devious change that is difficult to explain:
If the e is at the end of a word implying two things, no blending occurs.
R R

grme ava carati grme 'va carati

A horse walks in the village.

labhate avn labhate 'vn

He obtains horses.

labhete avn labhete avn

The two of them obtain horses.
This change is unusual and against our Sanskrit intuition. In part, it occurs because it reduces
ambiguity. We will see examples of this soon.
Case 8
Apart fromcase 6, the cases we have seen so far all define different parts of a given action. But
case 8 steps beyond this action and defines the person who hears the sentence. We could
also say that it defines the person we refer to with the word "you."

4
putra vro bhavasi
Son, you are a hero.
*
narau siha paymi
Oh you (two) men, I see a lion.
U R
bl rasya gajo grme carati
Oh boys, the warrior's elephant is walking in the village.
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The forms of case 8 are largely identical to the forms of case 1. But instead of nara, we have
nara. This means that nara can blend with the words that follow it:

narva corayati
Hey man, he is stealing a horse.
The 24 forms of gaja
Over the course of the past few lessons, we have seen all of the forms of the nouns whose stems
end in a, like gaja, nara, and bla. These forms appear in eight cases. Apart from case 6 and
case 8, these cases define the roles that certain nouns play in the verb action:
=~

r gacchanti ghd avair grmn blya

The heroes go with their horses from the house to the villages for the boy.
Case 6 connects two nouns.
U

*
narasya gajam payma
We see the man's elephant.
And case 8 addresses the listener.
*

nara paymi blam

Hey man, I see a boy.
Usually, these forms are assembled in a table, like so:
[1s] [1d] [1p]
[2s] [2d] [2p]
[3s] [3d] [3p]
[4s] [4d] [4p]
[5s] [5d] [5p]
[6s] [6d] [6p]
[7s] [7d] [7p]
[8s] [8d] [8p]
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You know all of these forms already. But for the sake of practice, learn to recite these forms in
order, fromgaja and gajau all the way to gaj in case 8. Doing so will fix these forms in your
mind.
Ambiguity
Tables are not a fun way to study Sanskrit, but they can make certain trends very clear. Here,
for example, we see all of the forms that are used multiple times:

gajau
(a) The two elephants (case 1)
(b) The two elephants (case 2)
(c) The two elephants (case 8)

gaj
(a) The elephants (case 1)
(b) The elephants (case 8)
-

gajbhym
(a) With the two elephants (case 3)
(b) For the two elephants (case 4)
(c) From the two elephants (case 5)
-
gajebhya
(a) For the elephants (case 4)
(b) From the elephants (case 5)
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gajayo
(a) Of the two elephants (case 6)
(b) In the two elephants (case 7)
As always, we should rely on context and common sense to help us:
R =
grma cchati
He goes in the village.
It makes no sense for a village to "go", so it is likely that we are "in the village."
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Neuter Nouns
43
Adding Emphasis
44
The tatpurua
45
Review
46
End matter
Footnotes
1.
^ Ashtadhyayi 1.4.42 : sdhakatama karaam "What is most useful is called karaa,"
or "instrument." This is one of the roles that case 3 expresses.
2.
^ Ashtadhyayi 1.4.32 : karma yam abhipraiti sa sapradnam "What the agent has in
mind when performing the action is called sapradna," or "presentation." This is one
of the roles that case 4 expresses.
3.
^ Ashtadhyayi 1.4.24 : dhruvam apye 'pdnam "When moving away, the fixed point is
called apdna," or "separation." This is the most important role of case 5.
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