Friday 24 July 2015

Revise the past perfect with रामायण​ सुन्दरकाण्ड​ 10.54

Beginners, especially Hindi speakers, request you to pronounce the 'a' at the end of every 'a' ending word: cucumb-a, jagām-a, nanand-a, cikrīḍ-a etc.

Hanumān’s delight upon thinking that he has found the kidnapped Sitā:-



आस्फोटयाम् आस  चुचुम्ब पुच्छं ननन्द चिक्रीड जगौ  जगाम 
स्तम्भान् अरोहन् निपपात भूमौ  निदर्शयन् स्वां प्रकृतिं कपीनाम्

He struck [at his arms/chest with his hands], kissed his tail, rejoiced, sang, darted towards the pillars, shot up and jumped down to the ground, exhibiting/indicating his monkey-nature.






आस्फोटयामास - slapped, clapped; - 3rd person, sing, perfect  आ √स्फुट्
चुचुम्ब -kissed;  3rd person, sing, perfect √चुम्ब्  
ननन्द - rejoiced; 3rd person, sing, perfect √नन्द्
चिक्रीड -  frolicked, played; 3rd person, sing, perfect √क्रीड् 
जगौ  - sang; 3rd person, sing, perfect  √गै
जगाम -  went, darted; 3rd person, sing, perfect √गम्
स्तम्भान् pillars; masc, acc, pl.
अरोहत् climbed; 3rd person, sing, imperfect √रुह्
निपपात - jumped down; 3rd person, sing, perfect नि √पत्
भूमौ - to the ground; locative, fem, sing
निदर्शयन् -  indicating; causative, present participle नि दृश्
स्वाम् - his own pronoun, sing, agreeing with fem - prakṛti
कपीनाम् - belonging to, of monkeys, masc, genitive, plural
प्रकृतिम् - acc, fem, sing - nature.

Sunday 19 July 2015

asataḥ mā sadgamaya (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28)

In response to a query on Twitter:



asataḥ mā sadgamaya
tamasaḥ mā jyotirgamaya
mṛtyoḥ mā amṛtamgamaya
(Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28)

In sadgamaya, jyotirgamaya, amṛtamgamaya as @haritirumalai pointed out, sad, jyotir and amṛtam are all in the accusative case (2nd), and appear in the stem form; and as per sandhi rules in compound with gamaya - which I mentioned earlier was a causative imperative, 'cause me to go, lead me.' As you rightly pointed out, gam takes the accusative, so that's taken care of. Because of the stem form, the case ending that was confusing you, is dropped. (santam santau sataḥ) And all three are neuters. Tamas and jyotis are anyway, and amṛta can be m/n/f, but in the sense of immortality it is a neuter.

Now the first part of each sentence could have be interpreted two ways depending on whether you take mā to be not/don't, or whether you take it to be the enclitic for mām - meaning mujh ko, mujhe, 'me' as I first reacted. But, since asataḥ , tamasaḥ and mṛtyoḥ are all in the ablative case (5th), there is no scope for ambiguity, and @haritirumalai got it right the first time.