Imatges de pàgina
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30. s is changed to sh when any other vowel except a or ā immediately precedes in the same word. Thus, bhavasi, “thou art"; but karoshi, not karosi, "thou doest."

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CHANGES OF FINAL T.

Thus, prātar

31. Again, rules A, B, D, apply equally to final r. kāla becomes prātaḥ kāla; prātar cha, prātash cha; and the preposition nir before ukta remains unchanged, and before rasa is changed to ni; thus, nirukta, nīrasa.

32. But final ar, unlike ah, remains unchanged before any sonant (consonant or vowel); as, prātar ūsha: and before the sonant r itself, drops the r and lengthens the preceding a; as, punar rakshati becomes punā rakshati.

33. It is to be observed further of r, that it may optionally double any consonant (except ₹) that immediately follows it. Thus, fa qu may be written निर्हय.

Hence it appears that the symbol Visargah (:) may be considered as much a representative of final s and r, when these letters are imperceptible, as of final h. Indeed, all those inflections of nouns and persons of verbs which are said to end in Visargah, might be said to end in s; only that, in such cases, the s is silent, or pronounced with an imperceptible breathing, as in the French les, or the English, island, viscount. So again, in many French words, such as parler, the final r is silent; and in some English, such as card, the sound of r is very indistinct; and in all these cases, s and r would be represented in Sanscrit by Visargah (: ч: &c.).

The following Table exhibits the more common combinations of consonants at one view. Observe, that in the top line of initial letters the aspirated consonants have been omitted, because it is an universal rule, that whatever change takes place before any consonant, the same holds good before its aspirate. Final s has also been omitted, as undergoing precisely the same changes with final h.

* Also when k precedes: as, vid with su is vitsu; but bhuk, bhukshu. Cf. r. 112. c.

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m n yn 2 ι ιη

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dn

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tur dur nuh pur bur m ur y u rur lur v

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sh uh s

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* n is only doubled if preceded by a short vowel.

† A final n before j is very rarely written in the palatal form n.

CHAPTER III.

ON SANSCRIT ROOTS, AND THE CRUDE FORM OF NOUNS.

35. Before treating of Sanscrit nouns, it will be advisable to point out in what respect the peculiar system adopted in their formation requires an arrangement of the subject different from that to which we are accustomed in other languages.

In Sanscrit nouns, then, there is this great peculiarity, that every one of them has two distinct states prior to the formation of the nominative case : viz. 1st, a root; 2dly, a crude form, coming from this root.

In the first place, therefore, let us inquire, what is the root. There are, in Sanscrit, a number of monosyllabic sounds, which are called roots. These are mere artificial inventions, having only an ideal existence; mere blocks, so to speak, of themselves quite useless;* from which, however, are carved out and fashioned all the varieties of nouns and verbs which exist in the language. Every one of these roots conveys some simple idea, which appears under different modifications in the derivatives from it. Thus, to mention a few of the most common: the root kship conveys the idea of "throwing"; kri of "doing," doing," "making "; hri of "seizing"; yuj, "joining"; as, vrit, "being"; bhū, "becoming "; jīv, “living"; nī, "leading"; ji, "conquering"; gam, yā, char, kram, i, sri, "going"; vad, vach, brū, "speaking"; budh, gyā (), "knowing"; drish (), "seeing"; ish, kam, wishing"; mri, 'dying "; dā, "giving"; jan, "producing "; dhā, “placing "; ad, bhaksh, bhuj, “eating"; pā, "drinking "; pach, "cooking"; han, "killing"; pat, "falling"; vas, "dwelling "; vish (fay), “entering "; sthā, “standing"; shru (), "hearing "; sprish (), "touching "; sidh, sūdh, “accomplishing "; krī (), “buying"; kup, krudh, “being

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* Except in a few cases, where they are used by themselves as nouns.

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angry"; chi, "collecting"; ghrā, "smelling"; khyā, “relating”; nash (), "perishing"; tyaj, rah, "quitting"; dwish (f), "hating"; nind, “blaming"; dru, “running"; dyut, dīp, bhā, shubh, 'shining"; pu, "purifying"; prachchh (), “asking"; āp, labh, obtaining"; stu, shans, " praising"; yat, "striving"; yam, “restraining”; shak (a), “being able"; tap, "heating"; dah, “burning"; much, “liberating"; muh, "being foolish "; yudh, “fighting"; ~~ ruh, "growing"; has, laughing"; swap, "sleeping"; hrish (), nand, hlad, "being glad"; snā, "bathing"; rabh, "beginning"; swar, "sounding"; sah, vah, "bearing"; smri, "remembering."

For

The student is recommended to commit to memory the commonest of these roots or elementary sounds, as here given. it will appear in the sequel, that from each of them may be drawn out, with great regularity, 1st, a set of simple substantives; 2dly, of simple adjectives; 3dly, of simple verbs. To take, for example, the root budh, "to know."* From this root are formed, on fixed principles, the following substantives and adjectives; bodha or bodhana, "knowledge"; buddhi, "intellect"; bodhaka, "an informer"; bauddha, "a Buddhist"; budha, "wise "; buddhimat, "intellectual"; and the verbs, bodhati, "he knows"; bodhayati, “he informs"; budhyate, "it is known"; bubhutsate, or bubodhishati, "he wishes to know"; bobudhyate, "he knows well." And the simple idea contained in the root may be endlessly extended by the prefixing of prepositions; as, prabodha, “vigilance"; prabudhyate, “he

awakes."

36. In the second place, it has been said that the Sanscrit noun, substantive and adjective, makes its first appearance in a state called the crude form. The same may be said of the pronouns,

* It will be convenient, in the following pages, to express the idea contained in the root by prefixing to it the infinitive sign to. But the Student must not suppose that the sound budh denotes any thing more than the mere idea of "knowing"; nor must he imagine that in deriving nouns from it, we are deriving them from the infinitive, or from any part of the verb, but rather from a simple original sound, a mere imaginary word, which is the common source of both nouns and verbs. † This state of the noun will, in the following pages, be called the crude.

numerals, and participles. Thus, bodha, bodhana, tad, panchan, bhavat, are the crudes of the nominative cases bodhah, bodhanam, sah, pancha, bhavan, respectively. The student should endeavour

to understand, at the outset, the meaning and use of this crude form. It is an intermediate state between the root and nominative case, the naked form of the noun, which serves as the basis on which to construct its eight cases, beginning with the nominative. In a Greek or Latin dictionary we look for the noun under the nominative case, but in Sanscrit we look for it under its crude state; as, for example, sah, "he," is found under tad. And here let it be distinctly understood, that the crude form of a noun is very far from having a mere ideal existence, like the root. It is of the utmost practical utility. It is that form of the noun which is always used in the formation of compound words; and as every Sanscrit sentence contains, perhaps, more compound words than simple ones, it may with truth be said, that the crude state of the noun is not only that form under which it appears in the dictionary, but is also the most usual form under which it appears in books.

We may conceive it quite possible that Greek and Latin grammarians might have proceeded on a similar plan, and that they might have supposed a root λey, from which was drawn out the nouns λέξις, λεξικὸς, λεκτὸς, καταλογὴ, ἔλλογος, and the verbs λέγω, kataλéyw, ¿lλoyéw: so also, a root ag, from which was derived the nouns agmen, actio, actus; and the verbs ago, perago: or a root nau, from which would come nauta, navis, nauticus, navalis, navigo. Again, they might have supposed a crude form to each of these nouns, as well as a root; as, for instance, λeğiko of λeşıkòs, and navi of navis; and they might have required the student to look for the noun navis under navi, and the verb navigo under nau. Further than this, they might have shewn that this crude form was the form used in the formation of compound words, as in λe§ıkoypάpos, naviger. But Greek and Latin are too uncertain in their construction to admit of such a method of arrangement being extensively applied: such, however, is the artificial character of the Sanscrit language, that here it has been done throughout with great regularity and pre

cision.

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