á dá náh pá bá má y ár á lá v

á ih kir g is chir jis tir dir nih pir bir mir yí

sih sir h

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

CHAPTER III.

ON SANSKRIT ROOTS, AND THE FORMATION OF NOMINAL BASES.

BEFORE treating of Sanskrit 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.

74. In Sanskrit nouns (including substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals) 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, coming directly from the root, a state which is sometimes called the crude form; that is to say, a state antecedent to inflection, and anterior to any of the cases, even the nominative. This form of the noun is more properly termed the nominal base, or the inflective base of the noun; that is, the changed form of the root, which serves as the basis on which the system of cases is constructed. In the first place, then, let us inquire what is the root?

There are in Sanskrit about two thousand elementary sounds, out of which, as out of so many blocks, are carved and fashioned, not only all the nouns, but all the verbs which exist in the language.

a. Though the root may be compared to a rough block, or to the raw material, out of which nouns and verbs are constructed, yet the student must understand that in the dialect of the Vedas, and even in modern classical Sanskrit, roots are not unfrequently used by themselves as substantives and adjectives, and are very commonly so used at the end of compounds. See 84, 87, and 172.

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b. Every one of these roots or primary sounds 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 fakship conveys the idea of throwing;' kri, of doing,' 'making;' krí, of buying;' hri, of seizing,'' taking;' yuj, 'joining;'as, vṛit, 'being;' bhú, becoming;' jív, ‘living; ✈ ní, 'leading;' fa ji, conquering;' п gam, πyá, चर् char, क्रम् kram, इ i, मृ sri, स्कन्द् skand, 'going ;' वद् vad, वच् vach,

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a brú, ' speaking;' T budh, ☎ jňá, knowing;' driś, seeing;' za ish, TM kam, ‘ wishing;' mṛi, ' dying;' ¿ dá, 'giving;' Ħ jan, 'producing;' dhá, placing;'

ad,

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bhuj, ☎ bhaksh, ' eating;'

han,

faπ viś, 'entering;' spriś, touching;' far

krudh, being angry;'
khyά, 'relating;'

dwish, hating; f

killing;' pat,

sthá, ‘stand

sidh, a sádh,

f◄ chi, ‘collect

naś, ' perishing;'

nind, ‘blam

ŋ dyut, ¿ díp, ✈ bhá, π subh, 'shining;'

pú, purifying;'prachchh, asking;' áp, ♫ labh, ‘obtaining ;' स्तु stu, शंस् sans, 'praising ;' यत् yat, ' striving ;' यम् yam, "restraining; sak, being able; tap, heating; dah,

ruh, growing;' has,

— sleeping ;' हृष् hrish, नन्द nand, बाद् hläd, ‘bathing ;' रम् rabh, beginning ;' स्वर् swar, vah, ‘bearing;' ♬ smri, remembering;'

c. Observe, that 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 kship denotes any thing more than the mere idea of throwing;' 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, which is the common source of both nouns and verbs.

75. A cursory glance at the above list of common roots will serve to shew that there are two particulars in which they all agree. Every one of them is monosyllabic, and every one of them contains a single vowel, and no more. In other respects they offer considerable diversity. Some consist of a single vowel only; some begin with one or two consonants, and end in a vowel, but none end in either a orau; some begin with a vowel, and end in one or two consonants *; and some begin and end with one or two

* Rule 43, which requires that if a word ends in a conjunct consonant, the last member shall be rejected, is not applicable to roots, unless they are used as complete words in a sentence. Nevertheless, in the case of roots ending in a consonant, preceded by a nasal, the latter is often euphonically dropped, as बन्ध् becomes बध्.

consonants*, inclosing a medial vowel; so that a root may sometimes consist of only one letter, as i, 'to go;' and sometimes of five, as skand, to move; prachchh, 'to ask.'

a. There are a few polysyllabic words recognised as roots, but they are generally the result of the accidental conjunction of a preposition with a monosyllabic root; that is to say, the preposition has been so constantly used in conjunction with the root, that it has at length come to be regarded as part of the root: thus in the roots san-grám, 'to fight,' and we avadhír, 'to despise,' the prepositions sam and ava have combined with the root in this manner. A few other polysyllabic roots are the result of a reduplication of the radical syllable; (as, दरिद्रा daridrá, 'to be poor ;' जागृ jágri, 'to be awake;' चकास् chakás, ‘ to shine;' veví, 'to go,'' pervade;') and a few are derived from nouns; as, to play,' from HTC kumára, a boy.'

b. Roots beginning with n ands are liable, according to 58 and 70, to be changed to n and sh. Hence these roots are invariably exhibited in Native Grammars as beginning with and, because the Indian system requires that in exhibiting any general type of a class of words, that form should be taken which may occur even under the rarest circumstances. But in this Grammar, roots of which the initials aren and s will be exhibited as beginning with these letters, by reason of their more frequent occurrence.

c. Indian grammarians attach certain symbolical letters and syllables (called anubandhas or appendages') to particular roots to indicate peculiarities in their conjugation. Thus the letter i, placed after a root, marks the insertion of a nasal; as in the root nid, which could be written fafe nidi, to shew that in conjugation is inserted (pres. nindámi, &c.). Similarly, ir marks two forms of the 3d preterite; thus suchir shews that such may make either asochisham or aśucham in that tense. So also, au indicates a root which rejects the inserted i (see 391); o marks the substitution of na for ta in the pass. participle; Ju, the optional insertion of i in the indeclinable participle; ú, the optional insertion of i in the two futures, &c.

76. The learner is recommended to study attentively the commonest of these roots, or elementary sounds, as given at 74. b. He may rest assured, that by pausing for a time at the root, his progress afterwards will be more rapid, when he ascends to the branches which spring from it. For it must never be forgotten, that every word in Sanskrit, whether substantive, adjective, verb, or adverb, stands in close filial relationship to some radical sound. In fact, every root is a common bond of union for a large family of words, which might otherwise appear unconnected; and words

* One root, śchyut, ‘to drop,' begins with three consonants.

G

which, when viewed apart from the root, are isolated symbols, demanding a separate effort of memory for each separate idea which they express, fasten themselves readily on the mind when regarded as so many parts of one original idea, so many branches of a common stock.

Thus, to take any one of the foregoing roots- as, for example, budh, 'to know'—we shall find that from it may be drawn out with great regularity, 1st, a set of simple substantives; 2dly, of simple adjectives; 3dly, of simple verbs: thus, bodha or bodhana, ‘knowledge;' buddhi, 'intellect;' bodhaka, an informer;' bauddha, ‘a Buddhist ;' budha, 'wise;' buddhimat, 'intellectual;' and the following verbs, bodhati, 'he knows;' budhyate, it is known;' bodhayati, 'he informs;' 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.’

77. In the next place we are to inquire what is the base or crude form of the noun. The student should understand, at the outset, the meaning and use of this 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 Sanskrit we look for it under its crude state. Thus, bodha, bodhana, tat, panchan, bhavat, are the crude bases under which the nominative cases bodhas, bodhanam, sas, pancha, bhaván, are to be sought. And here it may be observed, that the base of a noun is no mere grammatical invention. It is, perhaps, more practically useful than the cases derived from it. It is that form of the noun which is always used in the formation of compound words, and in this respect may be regarded as the most general of cases. And since every Sanskrit sentence contains more compound words than simple, it may with truth be said, that the crude base is the form under which the noun most usually appears.

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, καταλέγω, ἐλλογέω: so also, a root scrib, from which was derived the nouns scriptio, scriptum, scriptor, scriptura; and the verbs scribo, perscribo, ascribo or a root nau, from which would come nauta, navis, nauticus, navalis, navigo, &c. Again, they might have supposed a crude base to each of