trayōdaśādhyāyaḥ

lesson 13

yuṣmadasmadau

Personal Pronouns

The words “I” and “you” in the singular and plural

Goals

prāpyāṇi

  • Understand the personal pronouns in Sanskrit and practice them with the exercise below.
  • Understand the formation and inflection of possessive adjectives (alongside words like bhavat- “you” and mahat- “big”) in Sanskrit, and practice them with the exercise below.

Lectures

vyākhyānam

Personal Pronouns

Adhyayanavidhiḥ: personal pronouns

Nouns and adjectives with multiple stems

Adhyayanavidhiḥ: personal pronouns

Possessive Adjectives

Adhyayanavidhiḥ: personal pronouns

Vocabulary

śabdāvaliḥ

This vocabulary is also available as a Quizlet set.

Note

sūcanā

Possessive adjectives, introduced in this lesson, are often used to express a relationship that is extremely important in Indian philosophy: the relationship between a property (dharmaḥ) and a property-possessor (dharmī). This relationship is critical to inferential cognitions, in the theory of most Indian philosophers: if something (x) possesses a certain property (a) that is known to be invariably concomitant with another property (b), then it is inferred to possess the second property (b). There are different ways of spelling out these relationships, but here is one formulation:

  • parvatō dhūmavān
    “The mountain (dharmī) possesses smoke (dharmaḥ)”
  • yō yō dhūmavān sō ’gnimān
    “Whatever possesses smoke possesses fire”
  • yathā mahānasam
    “Just like a kitchen”

    This statement (the udāharaṇam or example) is used to corroborate the statement of invariable concomitance above. The kitchen possesses both smoke and fire.

  • tasmāt parvatō ’gnimān
    “Therefore the mountain possesses fire”

Exercises

abhyāsaḥ

Here are a few resources to help you study:

1. Personal pronouns

Translate each of the sentences below into Sanskrit, using all of the cases specified in parentheses. Where enclitic forms are available, use both the enclitic and non-enclitic forms. For the verb “greet,” you can use √nam or pra-√nam (first class, parasmaipadi), which takes an accusative, dative, or genitive, or abhi-√vad (first class, parasmaipadi), which takes an accusative or dative, or √vand (first class, ātmanēpadi), which only takes an accusative.

Remember to do external sandhi on these sentences!

  1. I (sg.nom.) greet you (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  2. I (sg.nom.) greet you (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  3. I (sg.nom.) greet you (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  4. I (sg.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  5. I (sg.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, du.acc/dat/gen.).
  6. I (sg.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  7. We (du.nom.) greet you (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  8. We (du.nom.) greet you (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  9. We (du.nom.) greet you (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  10. We (du.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  11. We (du.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, du.acc/dat/gen.).
  12. We (du.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  13. We (pl.nom.) greet you (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  14. We (pl.nom.) greet you (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  15. We (pl.nom.) greet you (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  16. We (pl.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  17. We (pl.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, du.acc/dat/gen.).
  18. We (pl.nom.) greet you (bhavat-, pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  19. You (sg.nom.) greet me (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  20. You (sg.nom.) greet us (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  21. You (sg.nom.) greet us (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  22. You (du.nom.) greet me (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  23. You (du.nom.) greet us (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  24. You (du.nom.) greet us (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
  25. You (pl.nom.) greet me (sg.acc/dat/gen.).
  26. You (pl.nom.) greet us (du.acc/dat/gen.).
  27. You (pl.nom.) greet us (pl.acc/dat/gen.).
2. Possessive adjective formation

Give the specified case-form of each phrase, using possessive adjectives in mat/vat or in. The gender should be that of the noun in parentheses.

  1. [a mountain] possessing fire (accusative sg.)
  2. [a mountain] possessing smoke (instrumental sg.)
  3. [a kitchen] possessing smoke (accusative sg.)
  4. [a fire] possessing logs (dative sg.)
  5. [a goddess] possessing power (locative sg.)
  6. [teachers] possessing students (nominative pl.)
  7. [forests] possessing trees (nominative pl.)
  8. [girls] possessing intelligence (accusative du.)
  9. [soldiers] possessing swords (locative du.)
  10. [Yama] possessing a noose (genitive sg.)
  11. [kings] possessing power (locative pl.)
  12. [a king] possessing old age (locative sg.)
  13. [a bride] possessing a [good] family (instrumental sg.)
  14. [a word] possessing a meaning (genitive sg.)
  15. [a river] possessing banks (ablative sg.)
  16. [soldiers] possessing arrows (genitive pl.)
  17. [statements] possessing reasons (ablative pl.)
  18. [armies] possessing soldiers (nominative du.)

When you have completed these exercises, try the following readings: