संस्कृत विद्याभ्यास

राम शब्द अकारान्त पुल्लिङ्ग विभक्ति एकवचन द्विवचन बहुवचन प्रथमा रामः रामौ रामाः द्वितीया रामम् रामौ रामान् तृतीया रामेण रामाभ्याम् रामैः चतुर्थी रामाय रामाभ्यम् रामेभ्यः पञ्चमी रामात् रामाभ्यम् रामेभ्यः षष्ठी रामस्य रामयोः रामाणाम् सप्तमी रामे रामयोः रामेषु सम्बोधना हे राम हे रामौ हे  रामा:    रमा शब्द आकारान्त स्त्रील्लिङ्ग विभक्ति एकवचन द्विवचन बहुवचन प्रथमा रमा रमे रमाः द्वितीया रमाम् रमे रमाः तृतीया रमया रमाभ्याम् रमाभिः चतुर्थी रमायै रमाभ्याम् रमाभ्यः पञ्चमी रमायाः रमाभ्याम् रमाभ्यः षष्ठी रमायाः रमयोः रमाणाम् सप्तमी रमायाम् रमयोः रमासु सम्बोधना हे रमे हे रमे हे रमाः हरि शब्द इकारान्त पुल्लिङ्ग विभक्ति एकवचन द्विवचन बहुवचन प्रथमा हरि: हरी हरय: द्वितीया हरिम् हरी हरीन् तृतीया हरिण

 Many Sanskrit students find declensions hard to remember. Is one supposed to memorize them? Whenever I see a noun which is not subject, I start mumbling राम: रामौ रामा: रामं .. That is not right. May be one should understand what these are and how to form these. Let us start with Nominative case Nominative case प्रथमा विभक्ति A noun is in nominative case when it is the subject of a sentence.  रामः गच्छति|  Here रामः is the subject of the sentence and it is in nominative case. Accusative case द्वितीया विभक्ति The noun which is the direct object of the sentence is in accusative case.  रामः जलं पिबति|    Rama drinks water.    Here what does he drink? He drinks water. Water is the object of the sentence.    बालकः पाठं लिखति|           Boy reads lesson. वानराः तरून् आरोहन्ति|      The monkeys climb trees. मुनयः हरिं भजन्ति|            The sages pray to Hari. गुरुः उत्तराणि अवदत्|         The teacher told the answers. रमा श्लोकम् गायति|           Rama sings the shloka. शामः पुत्रौ वद

 A unique feature of Sanskrit language is dual verb.  In most other languages verb can be singular - indicating that subject is one person/single or it can be plural - indicating a subject which is multiple - more than one. e.g. She eats her meal. - eats is a singular verb  They eat their meal. - eat is plural verb (In English the verbs in singular and plural are mostly same - except for third person) But in Sanskrit, the verb is different for one, two and more than two. So the verbs are singular, dual and plural.  Ram and Shyam both eat their meal. - this is dual रामः शामः च भोजनानि खादत : |      खादतः is dual verb  So our table of verb conjugation will have 9 entries - 3 for first person, 3 for second person and 3 for third person.  Now let us look at the verb forms for गम् (to go) verb in present tense. एक वचन द्वि वचन  बहु वचन   प्रथम पुरुष गच्छति गच्छतः गच्छन्ति स: गृहं गच्छति |  तौ गच्छत:|  बालिका: गच्छन्ति |     मध्यम पुरुष गच्छसि गच्छथ:  गच्छथ    त्वम् अद्य गच्छसि|  युवां गच्छथ