The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit Ideal for courses in beginning Sanskrit or self-study, this textbook employs modern, tried-andtested pedagogical methods and tools, but requires no prior knowledge of ancient languages or linguistics. Devanāgarī script is introduced over several chapters and used in parallel with transliteration for several chapters more, allowing students to progress in learning Sanskrit itself while still mastering the script. Students are exposed to annotated original texts in addition to practice sentences very early on, and structures and systems underlying the wealth of forms are clearly explained to facilitate memorisation. All grammar is covered in detail, with chapters dedicated to compounding and nominal derivation, and sections explaining relevant historical phenomena.   Online resources include:  Flash cards custom-made for the vocabulary and forms in the book  Video tutorials for all chapters  Up-to-date links to writing, declension and conjugation exercises and online dictionaries, grammars and textual databases

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A. M. Ruppel was the Townsend Senior Lecturer in the Greek, Latin and Sanskrit Languages at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) for nine years, and currently is Head of Sanskrit at St James Senior Boys’ School in Ashford (Surrey), UK. Ruppel has received the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award as well as a grant from the Cornell Center for Teaching Excellence, and is the author of Absolute Constructions in Early Indo-European (Cambridge, 2012).

THE CAMBRIDGE INTRODUCTION TO

Sanskrit A. M. RUPPEL

Cornell University, St James Senior Boys’ School

314 to 321, 3rd Floor, Plot No.3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi 110025, India. Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107459069 © A. M. Ruppel 2017 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2017 Reprinted 2017 First South Asia edition 2017 Reprint 2019 This South Asia edition is based on A. M. Ruppel / The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit / 9781107459069 / 2017

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-108-43915-2 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

This book is dedicated to my students. I hope that they have learned as much from me as I have from them.

CONTENTS Acknowledgements xiii

CHAPTER 0  Studying Sanskrit 1 Why Learn Sanskrit? 1 How to Use This Book 2 Study Techniques 4 Supplementary Materials 5 Further Study – Language and ­L iterature 6 List of Abbreviations 7 Notes for the Reader 8 CHAPTER 1  Writing Sanskrit 9 Writing Single Characters 10 Writing Words 12 CHAPTER 2  The System of Sanskrit Sounds 18 Vowels 19 Consonants 19 Use of this Chapter for Reference 21 CHAPTER 2A  Word Stress: Heavy and Light ­S yllables 25 CHAPTER 3  Road Map: Verbs 29 1) T he Categories of the Sanskrit Verb 29

2) How These Categories are Expressed 31 Technical Note I: Verbal Roots, Stems and Verb Classes 32 Technical Note II: Affixes and Endings 33 Technical Note III: Punctuation Marks 33 CHAPTER 4  The Present Tense 38 Verbal Endings of the Present Indicative Active; Class I, IV, VI Verbs 38 Technical Note: Sandhi 39 CHAPTER 5  Road Map: Nominals 43 Definition 43 1) Case 43 2) Number 47 3) Gender 48 Three Aspects of Nominal Usage 48 ‘Postpositions’ 50 CHAPTER 6  a-Stems 57 a-Stem Nouns 57 a-Stem Adjectives 58 Dictionary Matters 58 Retroflexion of n 59 Syntactic Note: इति and Direct Speech 59 vii

CHAPTER 7  Vowel Gradation and Why We Need to Know about It 68 Vowel Gradation 68 Applications: 70 Verb Classes 71 Class X Presents 71 Causatives 71 Verbal Roots Ending in a ­Vowel 72 Verbal Roots Cited in Guṇa 72 CHAPTER 8  Absolutives, ta-Participles and Infinitives; Introduction to Internal Sandhi 80 Formation and Meaning of the Absolutive and the taParticiple 80 Brief Introduction to Internal Sandhi: internal sandhi before t 82 Use of Participles and Especially the ta-Participle 84 The Infinitive 85 CHAPTER 9  ā-Stems 92 ā-Stem Nouns 92 Adjectives 93 Adverbs 95 More Internal Sandhi: The Ruki Rule on the Retrof lexion of s 95 Stylistic Note: ‘to go’ and Abstract Nouns 96 Syntactic Note: Relative Clauses in a Nutshell 96

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CHAPTER 10  Prepositions and Preverbs 101 Prepositions 101 Preverbs 101 More Internal Sandhi: Vowels and Nasals 104 CHAPTER 11  Introduction to External Sandhi I: Consonant Sandhi 109 Introduction to External Sandhi 109 Consonant Sandhi 110 CHAPTER 12  Imperfect Indicative and Present Potential 118 Meaning 118 Forms 118 CHAPTER 13  ī- and ū-Stems; Sandhi II: Visarga Sandhi 125 ī- and ū-Stems 125 Regular ī-Stems 125 Root ī-Stems 125 ū-Stems 125 Feminine Nouns Formed from Masculine Nouns 127 Adjective Agreement 127 Visarga Sandhi 128 Stylistic Note: Word Repetition 130 CHAPTER 14  Compound Nouns 137 General 137 Stems 138

Types of Sanskrit Compound Nouns 138 Analysing Compounds 142 Formal Note: Stem Changes 144 CHAPTER 15  Consonant Stems I 150 Consonant-Stem Endings 150 Dental Stems I 151 Palatal Stems 152 Verb-Final Tatpuruṣas 153 Stylistic Note: The Use of स- in Compounds 153 CHAPTER 16  Sandhi III: Vowel Sandhi 160 Vowel Sandhi 160 Internal vs. External Sandhi: A Comparison 162 Stylistic Note: Men like Tigers 162 CHAPTER 17  Noun Formation 172 The Suffixes -a-, -ana-, -tra-, -tvaand -tā- 172 Vṛddhi Derivatives 173

CHAPTER 20  Introduction to Pronouns; Pronouns I 200 स:/तद् - ‘he, she, it; this’ 201 अयम् / इदम् - ‘this, that’ 202 CHAPTER 21  The Future Tense; Middle and Passive Voice 207 The Future Tense 207 The Middle Voice 208 The Passive Voice 210 CHAPTER 22  More Participles; Pronouns II 221 Middle and Passive Participles of Present and Future 221 Pronouns II: More Third-Person Pronouns 222 Pronominal Adjectives 223 Lexical Note: पर-  223

CHAPTER 18  Athematic Verbs I 180

CHAPTER 23  Relative and Correlative Clauses 232 Relative Clauses 232 Correlative Clauses 233 Indefinites 235 Stylistic Note: Alternatives to Relative Clauses 235

CHAPTER 19  Athematic Verbs II 189 Imperfect 189 Potential 190 Noteworthy Paradigms 190

CHAPTER 24  Consonant Stems II; Imperatives 241 s-Stems 241 Imperatives 242

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CHAPTER 25  Noun Stem Gradation; Consonant Stems III 251 Noun Stem Gradation 251 More Dental Stems: vant-/mant-Stems; tavant-Participles; (a)nt-Participles; mahānt- 251 Lexical Note: The Earth 254

CHAPTER 32  Pronouns III: 1 st- and 2 nd-Person Pronouns 310

CHAPTER 26  i- and u-Stems 261 i-Stem Nouns 261 u-Stem Nouns 263 i- and u-Stem Adjectives 263

CHAPTER 34  The Periphrastic Perfect; ta-Participles Ending in -na 322 The Periphrastic Perfect 322 ta-Participles Ending in -na 323

CHAPTER 27  The Perfect Tense I: Regular Perfect Formation 271

CHAPTER 35  Perfect Participles; More Comparatives 328 Perfect Active and Middle Participles 328 Comparatives in -(ī)yas- 329

CHAPTER 28  The Perfect Tense II: Irregular and Unexpected Forms 278 CHAPTER 29  ṛ-Stems, n-Stems; the Periphrastic Future 285 ṛ-Stems 285 n-Stems 286 The Periphrastic Future 289 CHAPTER 30  Secondary Middle Endings I: Thematic Verbs 297 Lexical Note: √यु ज् , यु क्त -, योग-  298 CHAPTER 31  Secondary Middle Endings II: Athematic Verbs 305 x

CHAPTER 33  Desideratives and Gerundives 316 Desideratives 316 Gerundives 317

CHAPTER 36  Absolute Constructions; Pronouns IV 334 Locative and Genitive Absolute 334 Pronouns IV: ena- ‘this’ 335 How to Use a Sanskrit Dictionary 336 CHAPTER 37  Numerals 341 CHAPTER 38  Aorists 346 CHAPTER 39  Pronouns V: asau/adas- 351

CHAPTER 40  Some Irregular Nouns 357 गो- ‘bull’; ‘cow’ 357 द्यो- ‘sky’ 357 पथ् - ‘path’ 358 पुं स् - ‘man’ 359 APPENDICES  Appendix I) Devanāgarī Practice ­H andouts 366 Appendix II) Background 373 Index of Quoted Passages 373 Index of Sanskrit Grammatical Terms 374

Sanskrit Metre: A Brief ­I ntroduction 375 Vedic Sanskrit: A Brief ­I ntroduction 378 Appendix III) Reference 382 Literature Introductions 382 Conjunct Consonants: Reference List 385 Devanāgarī Numerals 386 Sandhi 387 Reference Grammar 393 Vocabulary: Sanskrit–English 411 Index 430

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On my own, I could not have succeeded at any stage of the work on this book. At CUP, I am indebted to Michael Sharp for suggesting I turn my teaching materials into a book, to Kate Brett for helping me with the early stages of preparing the manuscript and to the fantastic and resourceful Laura Morris for seeing the process through to fruition. I used this book in my Introductory Sanskrit classes at Cornell for several years, and adapted it each summer based partly on my observations of what had worked and what hadn’t, and partly on feedback and observations of many terrific students. Among them, my warmest thanks go to Eloïse Cucui, Sumana Raj, Aletheia Cui and Marit Imsdahl. Several scholars who have been incredibly generous with their time have given me valuable feedback on different parts of the manuscript. I am especially grateful to Bernhard Forssman, Sadananda Das, Jared Klein, Larry McCrea and Alan Nussbaum. Many others have helped by offering their support and their advice on technical, literary, linguistic and pedagogical questions, or have granted me practical support, among them Allison Boex, Charles Brittain, Harold Brown, Koen Claeys, Eileen Daly-Boas, Nicholas Denyer, Lorraine Fitzmaurice, Coulter George, Anya Golovkova, Ben Gravell, Erik Kenyon, Andrew Ketley, Martin Kümmel, Sabine Masanetz, Torsten Meißner, Erich Merkel, Penny Needham and Jesse Noar. Together, they have prevented me from making many rookie and ruki mistakes; any remaining errors are entirely my own.

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CHAPTER 0

0

Studying Sanskrit

WHY LEARN SANSKRIT? There are many good answers to this question. Sanskrit is studied by scholars of language, religion and literature, by historians, sociologists and anthropologists and anyone else with an interest in India’s cultural heritage. Sanskrit as a language is quite simply beautiful, its structure complex enough to be interesting, but straightforward enough to be manageable. Knowledge of Sanskrit grants access to an enormous body of literature. Literary writing uses the means of a language to not just express a thought, but to express it in an interesting, appealing, artful way. Thus it always is more rewarding to read a work of literature in its original language. Yet the fact that much may be lost in translation is especially true in relation to Sanskrit: the breadth of meaning of Sanskrit words, and the way this breadth is used in Sanskrit poetry (especially in the form of puns and word play) sometimes make expressions or even whole sentences or texts nearly impossible to translate. Only in the original can one truly enjoy them. Furthermore, Sanskrit literature offers a wide window onto India: Sanskrit is the language not just of the sacred writings of Hinduism (and some of Buddhism and Jainism), but also of many other texts that have greatly influenced Indian culture and society over the course of more than two millennia. This book aims to teach Sanskrit by following two principles. First of all, it attempts to minimise the need for rote memorisation by maximising understanding of underlying structures, patterns and similarities. As will become clear from Chapters 3 and 5, both nouns and verbs in Sanskrit have large numbers of different forms that need to be memorised. Throughout this book, parallels will be pointed out between new forms to be studied and forms that are already known, and various other hints will be offered that should facilitate memorisation. Chapters dedicated to the introduction of new forms alternate with chapters and sections explaining the processes by which the great variety of forms comes to be (such as Chapters 7 on vowel gradation, 14 on compound nouns, 17 on noun formation); others recommend ways of handling e.g. the abovementioned multitude of meanings that a single word may have. While no linguistic background knowledge is required of the student, the book offers information on the history and development of Sanskrit whenever that helps to understand how the language as we see it works. (Such notes that may be helpful but are not crucial if one simply wants to know what forms Sanskrit contains are printed in grey.) 1