Imatges de pàgina
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CHAPTER IV.

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DECLENSION.

THE ARTICLE.

*

46. There is no indefinite article in Sanscrit.* Thus, “a man can only be expressed by the simple noun yч: puruṣhah. The definite article is usually expressed by the pronoun sa, asy: sa purushah, "the man." The indefinite pronoun

kashchit may be used like the English expression "a certain "; thus, fy: "a certain man." कश्चित् पुरुषः

General Observations.

As, in the last chapter, nouns substantive and adjective were arranged under eight classes, according to the final of their crudes (the first four classes comprising those ending in vowels, the last four those ending in consonants), so it will be the object of the present chapter to give the eight systems of declension arising out of this arrangement. Moreover, as every class of crudes comprised adjectives as well as substantives, so it is intended that the examples of a masculine, feminine, and neuter substantive, exhibited under each system of declension, shall serve as the model for the masculine, feminine, and neuter of adjectives coming under the same class.

The learner will have already gathered that the noun has three genders, and that the gender is, in many cases, determinable from the termination of the crude. Thus, all crudes in a, i, and those formed with the affix ti (r. 39.), are feminine: nearly all nouns whose crudes end in ana, twa, ya, tra, as, is, us, and man, are neuter; all in iman are masculine; but those in a, i, u, and ri, are not reducible to rule. The nominative case is, however, in the first of these instances a guide to the gender: as, devah,

* In modern Sanscrit eka is very commonly used as an indefinite article, as ekah purushah, 66 a man."

And in

"a deity," is masculine; but dūnam, “a gift," neuter. other cases the meaning of the word: as, pitri, "a father," is masculine; and mātṛi, "a mother," feminine.

*

In Sanscrit, all the relations between the words in a sentence are expressed by inflections. A great many prepositions exist in the language, but these are very rarely used alone in government with any case, their chief use being as prefixes to verbs and nouns. This absence of syntactical auxiliaries leads to the necessity for eight cases. These are called, 1. nominative; 2. accusative; 3. instrumental; 4. dative; 5. ablative; 6. genitive; 7. locative; 8. vocative." Of these, the third and seventh are new to the classical student. The instrumental denotes generally the instrument by which a thing is done; as, tena kritam, "done by him." The locative generally refers to the place or time in which any thing is done; as, Ayodhyāyām “in Ayodhyā”; pūrvakāle, "in former time"; bhūmau, "on the ground."† Hence it follows that the ablative is restricted to the sense from, and cannot be used, as in Latin and Greek, to express by, with, in, at, on, &c. The noun has three numbers, singular, dual, and plural.

SECT. I.-DECLENSION OF CRUDES ENDING IN VOWELS,
OR OF THE FIRST FOUR CLASSES OF NOUNS.
FIRST CLASS. -CRUDES IN α, MASCULINE AND NEUTER; IN ā and ī,
FEMININE.

Declined like a deva, mas. "a deity"; jīvā, fem. "life"; nadi, fem. "a river"; and dāna, neuter, "a gift."

47. By far the greatest number of masculine and neuter nouns, in Sanscrit, end in a in the crude form; and by far the greatest number of feminine nouns end in either ā or ī. These we have arranged under the first class, and the examples we are about to give will serve as the model, not only for substantives, but also

* OBS. That these cases will sometimes be denoted by their initial letters. Thus, N. will denote nominative, I. instrumental.

† Both these cases are used to denote various other relations. See the Chapter on Syntax.

for all the adjectives given at r. 38. as falling under this class. For all adjectives which make a in the crude form of the masculine and neuter make ā or 7 in the feminine. Thus, taking the adjective sundara, "beautiful." The masculine is declined like deva (nom. sundarah); the feminine like jīvā or nadī (nom. sundarā or sundari); the neuter like dāna (nom. sundaram).

So great is the importance of this first class of nouns, that, to make its declension clearer, it will be advisable to give, in the first place, the following general scheme of its terminations.

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The classical student will recognise in this scheme many resemblances to the terminations of nouns in Latin and Greek, when it is remembered that the Sanscrit a corresponds to the Latin u and the Greek o; the Sanscrit m to the Latin m and the Greek v; the Sanscirt ā or to the Latin a and the Geek ɛlɑ, or ɑ, or in the gen. plur. w; the Sanscrit bh or bhy to the Latin b; and that the Sanscrit Visargah, or final h, is equivalent to s.

n, or

In the application of the above terminations, the finals of the crudes must first be rejected. Thus, taking deva, and rejecting the final, we have dev; and adding the terminations, we have the nom. devah, &c. The four examples are now declined in full.

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48. Masculine Crudes in a, like, “a deity" (deus).

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a man," g, "a पुरुष,

man,", “a deer,” are written in the ins. sing. नरेण, पुरुषेण, मृगेण, and in the gen. plur. नराणां, पुरुषाणां, मृगाणां, the cerebral nasal taking the place of the dental.

49. Feminine Crudes in ā and ī, like, “life," and, "a river."

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The rest like the masculine deva.

Observe, that since the voc. dual and plural of the Sanscrit noun coincides with the nom., it will, in future, be omitted.

† When a feminine noun, like juvā, is taken to form the last member of a compound adjective, it is declined like deva for the masculine, and dāna for the neuter. Thus, taking the feminine noun vidya, "learning;" from this is formed the compound alpavidyā, "little learning:" and when this is used as a compound adjective it becomes, in the nom. masc. fem. and neut., alpavidyah, alpavidyā, alpavidyam, "possessed of little learning." On the same principle, a masculine noun takes the feminine and neuter terminations when forming the last member of a compound adjective; and a neuter noun, the masculine and feminine.

To convince the student of the absolute necessity of studying attentively the declension of this first class of nouns, he is recommended to turn back to r. 38. He will there find given, under fifteen heads, the various forms of nouns, substantive and adjective, which follow this declension. All the masculine substantives in this list are declined like deva; all the feminine either like jīvā or nadi; all the neuter like dāna. Again, all the adjectives in this list follow the same three examples for their three genders. Again, according to deva masculine, jīvā feminine, and dāna neuter, are declined all regular comparative and superlative degrees of the form punyatara, punyatama (r. 71.); all irregular superlatives of the form balishtha (r. 71.); all present participles of the forms kurvāṇa, kriyamāna (r. 124.); all passive past participles of the form krita, &c., which are the most common and useful of all verbal derivatives (r. 125. 1. 2. 3. 4.); all indefinite future participles, which are of constant occurrence, of the forms kārya, karaniya, kartavya (r. 129.); all participles of the second future, of the form karishyamana (r. 130.); many ordinals, like prathama (r. 74.). Lastly, according to nadi feminine, are also declined the feminines of adjectives like tanu (r. 40.); the feminines of innumerable adjectives

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