Lesson 10

Simple Sanskrit – Lesson 10

सरलं संस्कृतम् – दशमः (१०) पाठः |

Towards the end of previous Lesson 9, three aspects were mentioned for proceeding further. I propose to proceed with आत्मनेपदी धातु-s.

As mentioned in previous lesson, धातु-s in Sanskrit are परस्मैपदी, आत्मनेपदी or उभयपदी. Actually these names of classes of धातु-s have some meaning. The meaning can be deciphered as follows –

• परस्मैपदी धातु-s mean such धातु-s, whereby effect of the “action” is seen to influence someone or something else.
  • In the word परस्मैपदी there are two parts परस्मै and पदी. परस्मै means unto another. पदी can be interpreted to mean “having influence”. So परस्मैपदी would mean “having influence unto another”.
  • For example when saying अहं पाठशालां गच्छामि (I go to school), the school is going to have a new element there, i.e. myself.
  • Even when saying अहं वदामि (I say) my saying is going to cause new reverberations in the environment around me.
• आत्मनेपदी धातु-s mean such धातु-s, whereby effect of the “action” is seen to influence  the doer, the subject.
  • The word आत्मनेपदी also has two parts आत्मने and पदी. आत्मने means unto oneself and पदी as above can be interpreted to mean “having influence”. So आत्मनेपदी would mean “having influence unto oneself.
  • When saying चन्द्रः क्षीयते वर्धते च (moon waxes and wanes) the actions of waxing and waning influence the moon, the subject itself.
• In turn उभयपदी धातु-s mean such धातु-s, whereby effect of the “action” is seen to influence either the doer, (i.e. the subject) or someone (or something) else.
  • Eminent example of उभयपदी धातु is धातु ‘कृ’ (to do). An action of doing something has an influence both on doer and on something, that is done.
  • This brings to mind a line from गीता where it is said, “करणं कर्म कर्तेति त्रिविधः कर्मसंग्रहः” (१८-१८) meaning, “the tools, the action itself and the doer are three types of repositories of action”.
• The idea in citing the quote from गीता, is simply to detail that the consideration of which धातु is परस्मैपदी, आत्मनेपदी or उभयपदी seems to be very, very subtle. The nomenclatures परस्मैपदी, आत्मनेपदी, उभयपदी do have specific meaning. But it is difficult, at least for me to explain the concept very clearly. But there is no problem once one accepts whatever the पद of a particular धातु is. Practise will make it easier. Couple of examples given above are my own attempt to understand the concept. Admittedly the examples provide some help to understand the concept, but do not make it entirely clear.
  • For example it is difficult to explain how the verbal root स्था in सः तिष्ठति or सः उत्तिष्ठति is परस्मैपदी.

We have studied inflections of some 25 परस्मैपदी धातु-s in simple present, imperative and लिट् and लङ् past tenses. Here are inflections of a commonly used आत्मनेपदी धातु “लभ्”.

Table 10-1

Inflections of आत्मनेपदी धातु “लभ्”