Links to key words (Full glossary follows)
Ablative case, Accusative case, Active Voice, Analysis, Aorist, Aryan, Ashtadhyayi, Athematic verbs, Athitigva, Avyayibhava, Avyayībhāva compounds, Bahuvrihi, Bahuvrīhi compounds, Benedictive, Cardinal number, Case, Causative Conjugation, Composite dvandva, Compound Word, Conditional, Conjugation, Continuative or Gerund, Copulative Compunds, Dasarajna; Battle of Ten Kings, Dasyu, Dative case, Declension, Demonstrative pronouns, Denominative, Dependent compounds, Descriptive compounds, Desiderative, Devanagiri, Divodasa, Dvigu compounds, Ekaseshsa, Ekaśeṣa compound, Frequentative, Genitive case, Grassman’s Law, Guna vowel, Hitopadesha, Imperative, Imperfect, Indra, Indrani, Infinitive, Instrumental case, Intensive, Interrogative pronouns, Itaretara dvandva, Jatayu, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Karmadharaya, Karmadhāraya compounds, Kurushravana, Kutsa, Locative case, M. R. Kale, Middle voice, Mindfulness, Mitratithi, Nominative case, Number, Object, Optative, Ordinal number, Panini, Parsu, Passive voice, Past active participle, Past passive participle, Perfect Tense, Periphrastic future, Periphrastic perfect, Person, Personal Endings, Personal pronoun, Potential passive participles (gerundives), Precative, Predicate, Present Indicative, Present participle, Pronoun, Pushan, Pushpaka Vimana, Ralph T. H. Griffith, Rama, Ramayana, Ravana, Reduplication, Relative, Relative pronoun, Rig Veda, Roderick S. Bucknell, Roman script, Root, Root classes, Sandhi, Secondary Conjugation, Shambara, Siddharupa, Simple future, Simple vowel, Sita, Soma, Subject, Sudas, Sushravas, Tatpuruṣa compounds, Tatpurusha, The story of Nala, Thematic verbs, Trasadasyu, Turvasha, Turvayana, Valmiki, Vasishtha, Verb, Verbal prefix, Viswamitra, Vocative, Vowel gradation or ablaut, Vriddhi vowel, Vrshakapi, William Dwight Whitney, Word order, Yadu
Adverbs, Conjunctions, Indeclinables, Interjections, Prepositions
Primary Suffix, Secondary Suffix, Suffix
Absolute, Genitive Absolute, Locative Absolute
Aranyaka, Atharva Veda, Atharvaveda, Brahmana, Manu, Pada, Patha, Rig Veda, Rigveda, Sutra, Taittiriya Samhita, Upanishad, Vedic Sanskrit, Yajur Veda, Yajurveda
Accent, anudatta, enclitic, independent svarita, latin, pitch, Samhita, svara, svarita, tone, udatta, Vajasneyi
Accent, accent in declension, Double accent, enclitic, lack of accent, sandhi accent,
Accent in compounds, verbal accent
metre, nominal verb forms, tense participle, verbal prepositions
aorist system, augment, augment-less, augmentless, future system, perfect system, pluperfect, present system, preterit, Subjunctive
This glossary contains only terms that appear in lessons and blogs published up to now. As more and more lessons and posts are published, the glossary will be updated.
The link provided is the primary link. There may be references to the term in other posts.
| English Term | Sanskrit Equivalent | Definition | Primary Link |
| Ablative case | पञ्चमी (pañcamī) | The ablative case is the “from”-case. It is used to express the place “from which” as in “Krishna comes from the city”. It is also used for comparisons ” Krishna is taller than Rama”. For example, रामः नगरात् आगच्छति ( rāmaḥ nagarāt āgacchati) – Rama is coming (comes) from the city. In this sentence, नगरात् (nagarāt) is in the ablative case and means “from the city”. | Lesson 2 |
| Absolute | `In an absolute construction, normally, a noun in the locative or genitive case is used in combination with a participle which is also put in the locative or genitive case. It is then regarded as a temporal or a qualifying clause. For example, kāle काले “in time” when combined with, for example, the participle prapta प्रप्त becomes, kāle prapte काले प्रप्ते “in arrived time”. This expression then passes over into the absolute construction with the independent sense “the time having arrived”. | Lesson 40 | |
| Accent | svara स्वर | One of the key aspects in which Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit is the use of accents. The ancient Sanskrit accent is described as being dependent on a variation of pitch or tone. It is never described the the grammarians as a difference of stress, as it is in English. |
Lesson 43 |
| Accusative case | द्वितीया (dvitīyā) | The accusative case is primarily used to denote the object of a sentence. For example, in रामः कृष्णं पश्यति rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati “Rama sees Krishna”, कृष्णं kr̥ṣṇaṃ is in the accusative case | Lesson 2 |
| Active Voice | parasmai padam परस्मै पदम् | A sentence in which the subject is performing the action (on someone else). For example “Rama kills Ravana” | Lesson 1 |
| Adverb | An adverb is an indeclinable word that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb, or other adverb, expressing manner, place, time, or degree (e.g. gently, here, now, very etc.). There are three types of adverbs: Adverbs by suffix; Case forms used as adverbs and miscellaneous adverbs |
Lesson 35 | |
| Analysis | ākāṅkṣā आकाङ्क्षा | Process of decosntructing a sentence to get its meaning. It involves these steps: remove the Sandhis and get separate individual words; if the text is in verse, convert to prose form; for each word, figure out if it is a verb or noun, pronoun, numeral, adjective, adverb, particle, conjunction, pre-position, etc.; figure out the grammatical function of the word (what case, gender, number, what tense, what mode, what person, what voice etc.) –declensional and conjugational forms; if compound word , figure out what type of compound it is and separate out the constituent words; trace the derivation of each word from its root; figure out if the word is a participle, gerund, infinitive, gerundive or other derivation and what are the affixes and pre-positions that have been added; find the meaning of the word; figure out the connection between the words in the sentence (semantics); figure out if there are any special constructs like phrases, absolute contructions etc.; look in particular for phrases with the copula (forms of the verb “be” like is, was etc.) omitted. Find the meaning of the sentence. | Lesson 4 |
| Ancient Sanskrit | = Vedic Sanskrit | Lesson 42 | |
| Anudatta | anudātta अनुदात्त | Meaning “not raised” is a low tone or pitch accent | Lesson 43 |
| Aorist | luṅ लुङ् | The aorist (luṅ लुङ्) is used to denote an indefinite past | Lesson 34 |
| Aorist System | The many types of aorists (the root, the “a”, the “sa”, the “s”, the “iṣ”, the “siṣ” and the reduplicated types), its various modes (including the optative which is called the precative) and participles. | Lesson 47 | |
| Aryan | ārya आर्य | A group of people who considered themselves to be noble as opposed to other people | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Ashtadhyayi | aṣṭādhyāyī अष्टाध्यायी | Pāṇini’s sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar, estimated to have been completed between 6th and 4th century BCE. | Panini |
| Atharva Veda | The fourth Veda, and a later addition to the Vedic collection. | Lesson 42 | |
| Athematic verb | Verbs of classes 2,3,5,7,8 and 9 are called athematic verbs | Lesson 3 | |
| Athitigva | athitigva अथितिग्व | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Augment | The augment is a syllable (normally “a”) added to the beginning of the word to form the past tenses | Lesson 47 | |
| Augmentless | A normally augmented word with the augment lost | Lesson 47 | |
| Avyayībhāva compound | अव्ययीभाव | Adverbially used accusative cases of bahuvrīhi adjective compounds, which have an indeclinable or particle as prior member. Eg. samakṣam समक्षम् “in sight”; | Lesson 25 |
| Bahuvrīhi compound | बहुव्रीहि | compound words where the प्राधान्यम् prādhānyam lies outside the compound itself, on an antecedent word. A bahuvrīhi बहुव्रीहि compound takes a tatpuruṣa with a noun as the final member (and therefore functioning like a noun), and uses it with the idea of possessing added, thus turning it into an adjective, which then qualifies another noun taking the gender, number and case of the noun it qualifies. Eg. kāla + hasta काल + हस्त –> kālahasta कालहस्त (with a black hand) | Lesson 25 |
| Benedictive | āśīrliṅ आशीर्लिङ् | =Precative | Lesson 34 |
| Brahmana | Commentary on the Vedas. They are primarily a digest incorporating myths, legends, the explanation of Vedic rituals and in some cases speculations about natural phenomenon or philosophy. | Lesson 42 | |
| Cardinal number | 1, 2 , 3 etc. | Lesson 9 | |
| Case | vibhaktiḥ विभक्तिः | The case is the grammatical function of a noun, a pronoun or an adjective. In an inflected language like Sanskrit in which the use of prepositions is limited, it is the case that decides whether a noun is the subject or object or serving any other function of a sentence. In Sanskrit there are seven normal cases and a vocative case | Lesson 2 |
| Causative Conjugation | ṇijanta णिजन्त | A secondary conjugation. A causative of a root communicates the sense that a person or thing causes or makes another thing or person to undergo the state denoted by the root. That is, the causative changes the sense of the root from “do X” to “cause to do X”. Eg. rāmo rāvaṇaṃ hanti रामो रावणं हन्ति – Rama kills Ravana (simple transitive sentence) becomes sītā rāmeṇa rāvaṇaṃ ghātayati सीता रामेण रावणं घातयति – Sita causes Ravana to be killed | Lesson 32 |
| Classical Sanskrit | Sanskrit as it is used now. Classical Sanskrit proper begins with the Code of Manu, then the epics, the law books, the Purāṇas and then the other great works of literature (poetry, drama etc.) and other many technical works. | Lesson 43 | |
| Composite dvandva | Samāhāra dvandva | The compound word is always singular and neuter. The series of things in the compound is seen as a composite unit. Eg. bhūtabhavyam भूतभव्यम् (past and future); | Lesson 23 |
| Compound Word | samāsa समास | Compounding is a process of word formation in which two or more stems are joined together to form compounds which are then treated as if they are simple words with respect to construction and inflection. Eg. the word mūṣikaśāvaka (mouseling) is a compound of the words mūṣika (mouse) and śāvaka (young one). The word mūṣikaśāvaka is then declined like one word. | Lesson 23 |
| Concord | In Sanskrit, the verb agrees with the subject (rāmo māṃ paśyati रामो मां पश्यति) , an adjective agrees with its substantive (balī rāmaḥ बली रामः), a demonstrative pronoun agrees with its noun in number and gender (sa rājā स राजा ) and a relative agrees with its antecedent (yo gacchati sa rāmaḥ यो गच्छति स रामः). | Lesson 38 | |
| Conditional | lr̥ṅ लृङ् | The augment preterit of the simple future, equivalent to the imperfect can be formed and is called the conditional. The conditional is formed exactly as the imperfect is made corresponding to the thematic present stem Eg. “If Ravana had gone to Lanka, Rama would not have killed him.” yadi rāvaṇo laṅkam agamiṣyat tadā rāmaḥ taṃ nāhaniṣyat यदि रावणो लङ्कम् अगमिष्यत् तदा रामः तं नाहनिष्यत् | Lesson 27 |
| Conjugation | Conjugation is the variation of the form of a verb in an inflected language such as Sanskrit, by which the voice, mood, tense, number, and person are identified. Conjugation is called tiṅantaprakaraṇam तिङन्तप्रकरणम् in Sanskrit | Lesson 1 | |
| Conjunction | Connecting words. ca च (and); vā वा (or) | Lesson 35 | |
| Continuative | ktvānta क्त्वान्त; lyabanta ल्यबन्त | The continuative (gerund) indicates an action prior in time to the action of the main verb of a sentence. A series of continuatives can be used, where each continuative is prior in time to the one that immediately follows. Continuatives must always be followed by a main verb. Example: rāmo laṅkāṃ gatvā rāvaṇaṃ hatvā sītām amuñcat रामो लङ्कां गत्वा रावणं हत्वा सीताम् अमुञ्चत् “Rama went to Lanka (or having gone to lanka) , killed Ravana and (or having killed Raavana) freed Sita.” The hatvā and gatvā are continuatives. ktvānta क्त्वान्त is used with unprefixed root and lyabanta ल्यबन्त is used with prefixed roots. | Lesson 14 |
| Copulative Compound | Dvandva द्वन्द्व | Two or more nouns (and sometimes two or more adjectives) are connected as if by a conjunction like and. The प्राधान्यम् prādhānyam is equally on both the elements of a compound are called dvandva द्वन्द्व compounds. Eg. rāmakr̥ṣṇau रामकृष्णौ (Rama and Krishna). Note that the second element is in the dual. | Lesson 23 |
| Dasarajna; Battle of Ten Kings | dāśarājña दाशराज्ञ | A battle described in the Rig Veda where King Sudas defeats a coalition of ten kings. | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Dasyu | dasyu दस्यु | A set of people opposed to the Aryans | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Dative case | चतुर्थी (caturthī) | The dative case is primarily used as the indirect object of a sentence. For example, कृष्णः रामाय पुस्तकं ददाति (kr̥ṣṇaḥ rāmāya pustakaṃ dadāti) – Krishna gives a book to Rama. In this sentence, the word रामाय (rāmāya) is in the dative case singular, meaning “to Rama”. | Lesson 2 |
| Declension | subantaprakaraṇam सुबन्तप्रकरणम् | The variation of a noun, pronoun or adjective by which its gender, number and case is indicated. | Lesson 2 |
| Demonstrative pronoun | This, that, yonder etc. tad, etad, idam, adas तद् एतद् इदम् अदस् | Lesson 9 | |
| Denominative | nāmadhātu नामधातु | A secondary conjugation. The denominative conjugation has a noun as its basis. It is a verb made from a noun. If the noun from which the denominative is made is X, then the meaning of the denominative could be any of the following: be like X, act as X, cause to be X, regard or treat as X, play the part of X, make into X, use X, make the application of X, wish, desire or crave X etc. | Lesson 33 |
| Dependent compound | Tatpuruṣa compounds in which the prior member is a noun or a pronoun or an adjective used as a noun. The prior member of the compound is in some case relationship with the other member. Eg. satyaṃ vādin –> satyavādin सत्यं वादिन् –> सत्यवादिन् (truth speaking) | Lesson 24 | |
| Descriptive compound | Compounds in which the prior member is an adjective, an adverb or a noun used like an adjective. These are alled karmadhāraya कर्मधारय. Eg. nīla + utpala –> nīlotpala (blue lotus) | Lesson 24 | |
| Desiderative | sannanta सन्नन्त | A secondary conjugation. The sense of the desiderative is to indicate desire to perform the action of the verb. For example, let us the root √pā √पा (“drink”). pibati पिबति (simple present) means “he drinks”. pipāsati पिपासति (desiderative) means “he wishes to drink”. | Lesson 33 |
| Devanagari | devanāgarī देवनागरी | An abugida script used in the Indian subcontinent; used mainly for Sanskrit and Hindi [देवनागरी – This is Devanagari script] | Lesson 1 |
| Divodasa | divodāsa दिवोदास | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Double accent | Normally, in a word, only one syllable is accented, but there are certain words which have a double accent – certain types of infinities, copulative compounds of two deities and a particle . | Lesson 44 | |
| Dvigu | द्विगु | Bahuvrīhi compounds (especially the ones used as nouns) having a numeral as the prior member. dvigu द्विगु itself is an example! It means “of two cows” or “of the worth of two cows” etc. | Lesson 25 |
| Ekaśeṣa compound | एकशेष | This is a special type of dvandva compound where two or more nouns (and pronouns) are connected as if by a conjunction like and, but only one of them is retained with the necessary number. Eg. rāmaḥ + rāmaḥ –> rāmau राम: + राम: –> रामौ; | Lesson 23 |
| Enclitic | A word pronounced with so little emphasis. It is unaccented. | Lesson 44 | |
| Enclitic svarita | There are two types of svaritas, the enclitic svarita and the independent svarita. An udātta is normally always (there are some exceptions) followed by a svarita, called the enclitic svarita. The enclitic svarita is merely a shadow following an udātta. Also, an enclitic svarita, loses its character and becomes an anudātta, if the accent (udātta or independent svarita)of the following word follows immediately after it. | Lesson 43 | |
| Frequentative | yaṅanta यङन्त | A secondary conjugation. =Intensive | Lesson 33 |
| Future System | The simple future and its preterit (called the conditional), its participle and the periphrastic future. | Lesson 47 | |
| Genitive Absolute | See Absolute | Lesson 40 | |
| Genitive case | षष्ठी(ṣaṣṭhī) | The genitive case is primarily used for indicating possession. For example, रामस्य पुस्तकम् ( rāmasya pustakam) – Rama’s book. रामस्य rāmasya is in the genitive case. | Lesson 2 |
| Gerund | See continuative | Lesson 14 | |
| Gerundive | See potential passive participle | Lesson 15 | |
| Grassman’s Law | It states that if an aspirated consonant is followed by another aspirated consonant in the next syllable, the first one loses the aspiration. Such a lost aspiration reappears if the second one loses it’s aspiration in a construct. | Lesson 21 | |
| Guna vowel | guṇa गुण | a ā e o ar ra अ आ ए ओ अर् र are the Guna vowels. Guna of a ā are a ā themselves; Guna of i ī is e; Guna of u ū is o; and Guna of r̥ ṝ is ar or ra depending on context; For example bhū भू when guṇa strengthened (or gunated) becomes bho भो | Lesson 3 |
| Hitopadesha | hitopadeśa हितोपदेश | An ethico-didactic literary work that is a collection of ancient stories put together by a person called Narāyaṇa. Many stories of the Hitopadeśa are sourced from the Pañcatantra. | Lesson 4 |
| Imperative | loṭ लोट् | The primary use of the imperative is a command or injunction | Lesson 10 |
| Imperfect | laṅ लङ् | A tense indicating past action | Lesson 5 |
| Indeclinable | Indeclinables, as their name suggests, remain the same in all cases, numbers, genders etc. They undergo no change.The indeclinables are: Prepositions, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections. | Lesson 35 | |
| Independent Svarita | There are two types of svaritas, the enclitic svarita and the independent svarita.The independent svarita is secondary, being a combination of an udātta vowel and a following anudātta vowel (in sandhis). The independent svarita is takes the place of the main accent of a word, and it retains it character always. | Lesson 43 | |
| Indra | indra इन्द्र | A Vedic deity. King of the gods | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Indrani | indrāṇī इन्द्राणी | Indra’s wife | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Infinitive | The infinitive is normally used to indicate the motive or purpose of an action. For example, “Rama goes to the city to kill Raavana.” Here, “to kill” is the infinitive. The purpose or motive of Rama going to the city is to kill Raavana. rāmo rāvaṇaṃ hantuṃ nagaraṃ gacchati रामो रावणं हन्तुं नगरं गच्छति. The infinitive is hantum हन्तुम्. | Lesson 15 | |
| Instrumental case | तृतीया (tr̥tīyā) | The instrumental case is used primarily to denote accompaniment and means (instrument). For example, रामः कृष्णं शस्त्रेण हन्ति (rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ śastreṇa hanti) – Rama kills Krishna with (a) weapon. The word शस्त्रेण (śastreṇa) is the instrumental case singular, meaning “with or by weapon”. | Lesson 2 |
| Intensive | yaṅanta यङन्त | A secondary conjugation.The intensive is also called the frequentative. The intensive conjugation signifies the repetition of intensification of the action expressed by the primary conjugation of the root. In English, intensives normally appear as adjectives modifying the verb. “What the hell is going on here?”; “What the heck is going on here?”: “I am bloody well going to do it”. | Lesson 33 |
| Interjection | Some examples are: bhoḥ भोः (O!); dhik धिक् (alas!); kaṣṭam कष्टम् (woe is me!) etc. | Lesson 35 | |
| Interrogative pronoun | Who, what etc. kim किम् | Lesson 9 | |
| Itaretara dvandva | Itaretara dvandva | The compound has the gender and declension of the final member and is in the dual or plural depending on whether it has two or more elements or according to its logical value. Eg. devāsurāḥ देवासुराः (gods and demons – plural) | Lesson 23 |
| Jatayu | jaṭāyu जटायु | Divine vulture who tries to save Sita and is killed by Ravana | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Jon Kabat-Zinn | The person who popularised mindfulness in the west | Mindfulness | |
| Karmadhāraya compound | कर्मधारय | Descriptive compounds | Lesson 24 |
| Kurushravana | kuruśravaṇa कुरुश्रवण | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | History |
| Kutsa | kutsa कुत्स | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Lack of accent | Some words never have the accent. Others lose it based on their syntactical position in a sentence. | Lesson 44 | |
| Lesson | Sanskrit Lesson | OurSanskrit | |
| Locative Absolute | See Absolute | Lesson 40 | |
| Locative case | सप्तमी (saptamī) | The locative is the “in”-case expressing situation or location. For example, रामः नगरे अस्ति (rāmaḥ nagare asti) – Rama is in the city. In this sentence नगरे (nagare) is in the locative case meaning “in the city”. | Lesson 2 |
| M. R. Kale, | Author of reference books, 1. A Higher Sanskrit Grammar, 2. Roots, Verb-Forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language, Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi | Reference | |
| Manu | Refers to the archetypal, or first, man. The term “human”, “mānava”, means chldren of Manu.The originator of the manusmriti. | Lesson 42 | |
| Middle voice | ātmane padam आत्मने पदम् | A sentence in which the subject is performing the action (on oneself). For example “Rama washes himself” | Lesson 3 |
| Mindfulness | A process of focusing on the present, meditation being the main way to train one’s mind for this. | Mindfulness | |
| Mitratithi | mitrātithi मित्रातिथि | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | History |
| Nominal Verb Forms | Participles, infinitives, gerundive etc. | Lesson 46 | |
| Nominative case | प्रथमा (prathamā) | The nominative case is primarily used to denote the subject of a sentence. For example, in रामः कृष्णं पश्यति rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati “Rama sees Krishna”, रामः rāmaḥ is in the nominative case | Lesson 2 |
| Number | vacanam वचनम् | Refers to the number of persons in a grammatical event. Sanskrit dintinguishes three numbers – singular (one person) – eka vacanam एक वचनम्), dual (two persons) – dvi vacanam द्वि वचनम्, plural (three persons and above) – bahu vacanam बहु वचनम्. | Lesson 1 |
| Object | The entity that is acted on by the subject. In the sentence “John hits Jacob”, “Jacob” is the object. In रामः कृष्णं पश्यति (rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati ) kr̥ṣṇaṃ कृष्णं is the subject. | Lesson 1 | |
| Optative | vidhiliṅ विधिलिङ् | Optative mood, also called potential mood. Used for expressing a wish | Lesson 10 |
| Ordinal number | first, second, third etc. | Lesson 9 | |
| Pada Patha | a recitation of the Vedas marked by a conscious pause after every word, and after any special grammatical codes embedded inside the text; this method suppresses euphonic combination and restores each word in its original intended form; | Lesson 42 | |
| Panini | pāṇini पाणिनि | An ancient Sanskrit grammarian and linguist. Pāṇini is known for his text Ashtadhyayi, a sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar, estimated to have been completed between 6th and 4th century BCE. | Panini |
| Parsu | parśu पर्शु | An Aryan people | History |
| Passive voice | The passive voice is a form of the verb where the subject undergoes the action of the verb. Eg. Active voice: Rama kills Ravana; Passive voice: Ravana is killed by Rama. In Sanskrit there is a special conjugation to convey the passive meaning. rāvaṇo rāmeṇa hanyate रावणो रामेण हन्यते | Lesson 26 | |
| Past active participle | An active version of the past passive participle. For example, tyaktavān “he who has forsaken” from √tyaj | Lesson 13 | |
| Past passive participle | It is used like the English past passive participle in “-ed” or “-en”. “obtained”, “stolen” etc. It is very commonly used in classical Sanskrit to make sentences. √krī gives krīta; √jīv gives jīvita | Lesson 13 | |
| Perfect System | Consists of the perfect tense, its modes (as above), its participle and its preterit, called the pluperfect. | Lesson 47 | |
| Perfect Tense | liṭ लिट् | According to the Sanskrit grammarians, the perfect is used to denote past action done previous to the current day, but not witnessed by the speaker (parokṣe liṭ परोक्षे लिट्). For the root √budh √बुध् “know” as an example of a normal conjugation of a root ending in a consonant. The strong stem is bubodh बुबोध् and the weak stem is bubudh बुबुध्. The perfect endings are then added. | Lesson 28 |
| Periphrastic future | luṭ लुट् | The usage of the periphrastic future is similar to the simple future. The periphrastic future is normally used to indicate a more distant future than the simple future. The paradigm consists of derivations from an agent noun (nomen agentis). The appropriate conjugational form of the verb “as” “to be” is added to the nominative form of the agent noun. Eg. rāmo hantā रामो हन्ता “Rama will kill”; rāmau hantārau रामौ हन्तारौ | Lesson 27 |
| Periphrastic perfect | It is formed by adding an auxiliary to the accusative of a noun stem in ā आ. The auxiliary used is the reduplicated perfect tense of √as √अस् “be” , (or rarely) √bhū √भू, in the active only and √kr̥ √कृ, in the active and the middle. Eg. āsām āsa आसाम् आस, āsām āsatuḥ आसाम् आसतुः, āsām āsuḥ आसाम् आसुः etc. | Lesson 30 | |
| Person | puruṣaḥ पुरुषः | Person refers to the grammatical distinction between the participants in an event – the speaker (first person – I, we), the adressee (second person – you) and others (third person – he, she, them). In Sanskrit the third person is referred to as prathamapuruṣaḥ (प्रथमपुरुषः) the second person as madhyamapuruṣaḥ (मध्यमपुरुषः) and the first person as uttamapuruṣaḥ (उत्तमपुरुषः) | Lesson 1 |
| Personal Ending | Endings added to the stem form of the verb to indicate the conjugational form of the verb (person, tense, number etc.). Eg. ti ति is the ending added to indicate present, indicative, third person, singular, active. (bhavati भवति). te ते is added to indicate the middle voice of the above (bhavate भवते) | Lesson 1 | |
| Personal pronoun | I and you and its duals and plurals. In Sanskrit, peronal pronous have no distinction of gender. Asmad and yuṣmad अस्मद् and युष्मद्. | Lesson 9 | |
| Pitch | svara स्वर | The quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone. The Sanskrit accent is a pitch accent or a variation of tone. | Lesson 43 |
| Pluperfect | A tense form denoting an action completed prior to some past point of time specified or implied, formed in English by had and the past participle, as in he had gone by then. | Lesson 47 | |
| Potential passive participle | The gerundive denotes that the action or state expressed by the root or derivative must or ought to be done or undergone. For example “vācyam, vaktavyam, vacanīyam वाच्यम्, वक्तव्यम्, वचनीयम्” all three [derived from the root √vac √वच् (“speak”) mean “that which is to be said”, “that which ought to be said”. By extension of meaning, it can stand for “that which should be said” | Lesson 15 | |
| Precative | āśīrliṅ आशीर्लिङ् | The Precative is also called the Benedictive. It expresses a blessing or desire or a wish. It is almost similar in meaning to the the optative. | Lesson 34 |
| Predicate | Is the part of the sentence that describes what the subject does or is. In the sentence “John hits Jacob”, “hits Jacob” is the predicate. In रामः कृष्णं पश्यति (rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati ) kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati कृष्णं पश्यति is the predicate. | Lesson 1 | |
| Preposition | A preposition is a word, governing and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in “He put the book on the table”, “Rama killed Ravana in battle”, etc. There are some true prepositions (or postpositions) in Sanskrit, but they are not used often. Most of the verbal prefixes could be used as prepositions in ancient Sanskrit. However, in classical Sanskrit such usage is mainly restricted to anu prati ā अनु प्रति आ. There are also some other words that are used as prepositions / postpositions. saha सह – with; vinā विना – without; | Lesson 35 | |
| Present Indicative | laṭ लट् | A tense indicating present action | Lesson 1 |
| Present participle | The present participle is equivalent to the English participle “seeing” in “the man seeing the donkey”. There is a middle participle (eg. labhamāna लभमान from √labh √लभ्) and an active participle (eg. bhavant भवन्त् from √bhū √भू) | Lesson 12 | |
| Present System | Comprises the present tense, its modes (the optative, the imperative and the subjunctive), its participle and its preterit which we called the imperfect. | Lesson 47 | |
| Preterit | A grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past. | Lesson 47 | |
| Primary Suffix | A suffix added directly to the root to get stems | Lesson 36 | |
| Pronoun | A word that stands for a noun. It refers to either participants in a conversation (I, You etc.) or someone outside the conversation (he, she it etc.). In Sanskrit, the pronouns have some marked peculiarities of inflection. | Lesson 9 | |
| Pushan | pūṣan पूषन् | A Vedic god | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Pushpaka Vimana | puṣpaka vimāna पुष्पक विमान | Ariel chariot of Ravana taken from Kubera | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Ralph T. H. Griffith | A nineteenth century translator of the Rig Veda | ||
| Rama | rāma राम | King of Ayodhya, who defeated Ravana | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Ramayana | rāmāyaṇam रामायणम् | Acnient India epic poem | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Ravana | rāvaṇa रावण | King of Lanka who abducted Sita | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Reduplication | Reduplication is a process in which a (sometimes modified) part of the root (the initial consonant and the vowel, the starting vowel and maybe the following consonant etc.) is attached to the beginning of the root. | Lesson 21 | |
| Relative | An adverb accompanies by a corelative if…then etc. yadā…tadā (when, if…then) etc. | Lesson 9 | |
| Relative pronoun | Who what etc. used relatively; yad यद् | Lesson 9 | |
| Rig Veda | r̥gveda ऋग्वेद | An ancient Indian collection of hymns. Around 5000 years old. | |
| Rig Veda | The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns along with associated commentaries on liturgy, ritual and mystical exegesis. The Rig Veda is the oldest collection of verses in the world. | Lesson 42 | |
| Roderick S. Bucknell | Author of reference book, Sanskrit Manual, Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi | Reference | |
| Roman script | A script used for many European and non-European languages. It is an alternative writing script for Sanskrit and Hindi. [This sentence is in Roman script!] | Lesson 1 | |
| Root | dhātu धातु | Most words in Sanskrit can be traced back to a root. It is a basic building block of a word. A word is formed through a series of modifications of the root. For example, √i √इ (“go”) is a root. The word ayana अयन (“going”) is derived from the root √i √इ (“go”) through a series of modifications. There are ten classses of roots in Sanskrit | Lesson 1 |
| Root class | dhātu gaṇa धातु गण | There are ten root classes in Sanskrit. They are bhū class (1), ad class (2), hu class (3), div class (4), su class (5), tud class (6), rudh class (7), tan class (8), krī class (9), cur class (10) भू (१), अद् (२), हु (३), दिव् (४), सु (५), तुद् (६), रुध् (७), तन् (८), क्री (९), चुर् (१०) | Lesson 3 |
| Samhita | Samhita means “put together”, ie. a “collection”. Samhita also refers to the most ancient layer of text in the Vedas, consisting of mantras, hymns, prayers, litanies and benedictions | Lesson 42 | |
| Sandhi | saṃdhi संधि | The process in which word sounds change based on the environment in which they occur. For example, “rāmaḥ gacchati” becomes “rāmo gacchati” “रामः गच्छति” becomes “रामो गच्छति” | Lesson 1 |
| Sanskrit Lesson | Sanskrit Lessons | OurSanskrit | |
| Secondary Conjugation | A secondary conjugation is one in which a whole system of conjugations is formed from a derivative (derived from the root) conjugation stem, rather than the root itself. This also connected with a modification of the sense of the root. The main secondary conjugations are: The Passive; The Causative; The Intensive; he Desiderative and The Denominative | Lesson 32 | |
| Secondary Suffix | Secondary suffixes are added to derivative stems (that is, stems already ending in suffixes) (and also to pronomial stems and occasionally to particles) to get other stems. | Lesson 36 | |
| Shambara | śambara शम्बर | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Siddharupa | A Sanskrit reference book | Reference | |
| Simple future | lr̥ṭ लृट् | The simple future is used to indicate indefinite future time (including future continuous). The simple future stem is formed by adding sya स्य or iṣya इष्य to the guṇa-strengthened root. This is true for both thematic and athematic verbs. Thus from the root √bhū √भू “be”, we get bhaviṣya भविष्य; | Lesson 27 |
| Simple vowel | a ā i ī u ū r̥ ṝ अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ॠ are the simple vowels. | Lesson 3 | |
| Sita | sīta सीत | Queen of Rama, who was abducted by Ravana | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Soma | soma सोम | A vedic god; an intoxicating drink used by the Aryans for their sacrifices | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Subject | Is the person or thing about whom the statement is made. In the sentence “John hits Jacob”, “John” is the subject. In रामः कृष्णं पश्यति (rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati ) rāmaḥ रामः is the subject. | Lesson 1 | |
| Subjunctive | leṭ लेट् | A mode used to express a a requisition or a will. This is used only in Vedic Sanskrit and has been lot in Classical Sanskrit | Lesson 47 |
| Sudas | sudās सुदास् | Aryan king of the Bharatas | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Sushravas | suśravas सुश्रवस् | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Sutra | The sutras are a distinct type of literary composition, a compilation of short aphoristic statements. Each sutra is any short rule, like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven | Lesson 42 | |
| Svara | svara स्वर | =Pitch accent | Lesson 43 |
| Svarita | svarita स्वरित | Meaning “sounded” is like a circumflex accent. It is a raised tone followed by a falling one. | Lesson 43 |
| Syntax | Syntax deals with the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. | Lesson 38 | |
| Taittiriya Samhita | A best known rescension of the Krishna Yajur Veda. It consists of 8 books or kaandas, subdivided in chapters or prapathakas, further subdivided into individual hymns. | Lesson 42 | |
| Tatpuruṣa compounds | tatpuruṣa तत्पुरुष | Determinative compounds. Compound words where the प्राधान्यम् prādhānyam is on the second element of a compound. Eg. satyaṃ vādin –> satyavādin सत्यं वादिन् –> सत्यवादिन् (truth speaking) | Lesson 24 |
| The story of Nala | naḷopākhyānam नळोपाख्यानम् | The story of Nala is found in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata. The story is told by the sage Brihadashva (br̥hadaśva बृहदश्व) to Yudhishthira (yudhiṣṭhira युधिष्ठिर). | Nala |
| Thematic verb | Verbs of root classes 1,4,6 and 10 are called thematic verbs | Lesson 3 | |
| Tone | svara स्वर | =Pitch accent | Lesson 43 |
| Trasadasyu | trasdasyu त्रसदस्यु | A king mentioned in the Rig Veda | History |
| Turvasha | turvaśa तुर्वश | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Turvayana | tūrvayāṇa तूर्वयाण | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Udatta | udātta उदात्त | Meaning “raised: is a high tone or pitch accent. Only the udatta and the independent svarita have grammatical significance. | Lesson 43 |
| Upanishad | An Indian collection texts of a religious and philosophical nature. The Upanishads played an important role in the development of spiritual ideas in ancient India, marking a transition from Vedic ritualism to new ideas and institutions | Lesson 42 | |
| Vajasaneyi Samhita | A best known rescension of the Shukla Yajur Veda. | Lesson 42 | |
| Valmiki | vālmīki वाल्मीकि | Author of the Ramayana | Pushpaka Vimana |
| Vasishtha | vasiṣṭha वसिष्ठ | Author of the seventh book (mandala) of the Rig Veda. The guru of Sudas and Rama | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Vedic Sanskrit | The term Vedic Sanskrit refers to the metrical language of the Vedic hymns and the prose of the Brāhmaṇas and the Brāhmaṇa-like portions of the various recensions of the Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda. | Lesson 42 | |
| Verb | A word that is used in a sentence to describe an action, state, occurrence etc. The verb is the main part of the predicate. In the sentence “John hits Jacob”, “hits” is the verb. In रामः कृष्णं पश्यति (rāmaḥ kr̥ṣṇaṃ paśyati ) paśyati पश्यति is the verb. | Lesson 1 | |
| Verbal prefix | upasarga उपसर्ग | A prefix changes the meaning of a verb. The meaning after the prefix is added is not predictable. The meaning of each prefixed verb needs to be learned individually. Some prefixes do not change the meaning at all, while others change it drastically. Eg. adhi+√gam – “go to, attain”; anu+√gam – “go afte”r. It is possible to add more than one prefix to a verb as we saw above in sam+ā+√gam. The common prefixes in use are: ati, adhi, anu, antar, apa, api, abhi, ava, ā, ud, upa, ni, nis, parā, pari, pra, prati, vi, sam.There are some others of more restricted use: āvis, tiras, puras, bahis and some others. | Lesson 14 |
| Viswamitra | viśvāmitra विश्वामित्र | Author of the third book (mandala) of the Rg Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| Vocative | सम्बोधन प्रथमा (sambodhana prathamā) | The vocative case is used for calling, for addressing etc. For example, राम कृष्णः आगच्छति (rāma kr̥ṣṇaḥ āgacchati) – Hey Rama, Krishna is coming. In this sentence, राम (rāma) is in the vocative case. | Lesson 2 |
| Vowel gradation or ablaut | A phenomenon of variation of the vowel of stems to indicaticate different functions. For example in English we have sing, sang, sung and the noun song. In Sanskrit, a vowel has three grades simple, Guna and Vriddhi. | Lesson 3 | |
| Vriddhi vowel | vr̥ddhi वृद्धि | ā ai au ār rā आ ऐ औ आर् रा are the Vriddhi vowels. Vriddhi of a ā is ā; Vriddhi of i ī is ai; Vriddhi of u ū is au; and Vriddhi of r̥ ṝ is ār or rā depending on context; bhū भू when vr̥ddhi strengthened (or vrddhied) becomes bhau भौ | Lesson 3 |
| Vrshakapi | vr̥ṣākapi वृषाकपि | An ape-monkey mentioned in the Rig Veda (10.86). A favourite of Indra | Vrshakapi Hymn |
| William Dwight Whitney | Author of reference book, Sanskrit Grammar, Motilal Banrasidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi | Reference | |
| Word order | The sequence of words in a sentence that is decided by grammatical rules and affects the meaning of the sentence | Lesson 1 | |
| Yadu | yadu यदु | King mentioned in the Rig Veda | Vrshakapi Hymn |
our sanskrit 