My knowledge of Sanskrit grammar is pretty patchy. But armed with whatever little I know, gradually I hope it will become possible for me to understand the language.
So here’s a brief primer on the “Minimum Theoretical” that needs to be understood about the grammar of this language.
Understanding Shabd Roop
Any student of Sanskrit is at first lost in a maze of innumerable Shabd Roop that must be memorized before Sanskrit can be learnt. For a given word there are 8 groups of word forms (called vibhakti) for each of the Singular, Dual and Plural triplet.
But what do these 8 groupings from ‘prathama” to “saptami” to “sambodhan” indicate?
Here I will be taking help from the Hindi grammar since it has its similarities with Sanskrit. Unfortunately this limits the understanding of the post to readers with some familiarity with Hindi, but I hope to address this issue sometime in the future. I also invite scholars in other languages to help in creation of similar posts for other languages as well.
Coming back to Shabd Roop, in Hindi language we were taught the following rule regarding Kaarak:
| Karta (कर्ता ) | Ne (ने ) |
| Karam (कर्म) | Ko (को) |
| Karan (करण) | Se, Ke Dwara (से, के द्वारा) |
| Sampradaan (सम्प्रदान) | Ko, Ke Liye (को, के लिए) |
| Aapadaan (अपादान) | Se (Alag Karna) (से, अलग करना) |
| Sambandh (सम्बंध) | Ka, Ki, Ke (का, की, के, रा, री, रे) |
| Adhikaran (अधिकरण) | Mein, Per (में, पर) |
| Sambodhan (सम्बोधन) | Hai, Arrey (हे, अरे) |
This was memorized as a single sentence saying “कर्ता ने कर्म को करण से, के द्वारा सम्प्रदान को, के लिए अपादान से सम्बंध का, के, की अधिकरण में, पर सम्बोधन हे, अरे”
The above rule means that a noun / pronoun is followed by the relevant “kaarak” depending on the role it is playing in the sentence.
For example check the usage for the noun Yogesh in the following table:
| Karta (कर्ता ने) | योगेश ने खाया |
| Karam (कर्म को) | रमेश ने योगेश को बुलाया |
| Karan (करण से, द्वारा) | योगेश से पूछो |
| Sampradaan (सम्प्रदान के लिये) | योगेश के लिए फ़ोन है |
| Aapadaan (अपादान से) | योगेश से किताब लेके आओ |
| Sambandh (सम्बंध का, के, की, रा, रे री) | योगेश का भाइ, मेरी बहन |
| Adhikaran (अधिकरण) | योगेश पर पथ्थ्र्र्र गिरा – OMG! I hope not 🙂 |
| Sambodhan (सम्बोधन) | अरे योगेश इधर आओ |
So the vibhaktis “prathama” to “saptami” in Sanskrit for a noun or pronoun correspond to the kaaraks in Hindi starting from “karta” to “adhikaran“. This will help you understand what each vibhakti of Sanskrit is to be used for.
“Sambodhan” or the eighth form is commonly named in both Sanskrit and Hindi.
Hindi grammar is simplified in a way that the kaarak is common for all nouns and pronouns and does not change as per gender or singular / plural form of the noun either. So in the above examples you could as well replace Yogesh with Tanuja and all the above examples would be as relevant.
However not so in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, not only will we have a different form of the word to be used for various groups of nouns and pronouns, but within each group of noun or pronoun, we will have a different form of the word for the singular, dual and plural triplet. This throws up innumerable combinations of shabd roop which actually creates a steep learning curve to learn the language.
The groups of noun are classified as per gender and last vowel of the noun. A noun of the same gender ending with the same vowel will share identical shabd roop. For example shabd roop of “baalak” will be same as that of “Yogesh”. “Sita” shabd roop will be identical to “Tanuja“.
OK that’s enough grammar for a day.
I suggest in passing that it would help to memorize at least one Shabd Roop. Say that of “baalak”, given below:
Note: The equivalent Hindi kaarak is indicated in brackets.
| विभक्ति | एकवचन | द्विवचन | बहुवचन |
|---|---|---|---|
| प्रथमा (कर्ता ने ) | बालकः | बालकौ | बालकाः |
| द्वितीया (कर्म को ) | बालकम् | बालकौ | बलकान् |
| तृतीया (करण से ) | बालकेन | बालकाभ्याम् | बालकैः |
| चर्तुथी (सम्प्रदान के लिये ) | बालकाय | बालकाभ्याम् | बालकेभ्यः |
| पन्चमी (अपादान से ) | बालकात् | बालकाभ्याम् | बालकेभ्यः |
| षष्ठी (सम्बंध का, के, की ) | बालकस्य | बालकयोः | बालकानाम् |
| सप्तमी (अधिकरण मे, पर ) | बालके | बालकयोः | बालकेषु |
| सम्बोधन (सम्बोधन हे, अरे) | हे बालक! | हे बालकौ! | हे बालकाः |
Learning Sanskrit through Geeta 
Great Effort. Will help lot of enthusiasts who want to masterthebasic language of sanskrit
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हे मित्र नमोनम: मैने १५-१९-२२ को आज पहली बार आपकी साईट देखने का अवसर मिला है मै अपने प्रिय ग्रंथ श्रीमद्भगवतगीता जी को समझने, पढने, अध्ययन का पिछले १०वर्षो से प्रयासरत हुं अन्तत: सरकारि सेवा से निवृत होकर १-१-२०२१ से हर शलोक का व्यैकरण की दृष्टि से हर शब्द का विभक्ति, धातु, प्रत्यय, उपसर्ग, समास, लकार का ज्ञान सहित जानने का प्रयास कर रहा हुं काफी सफलता भी मिली है आपका भी यही प्रयास है जो मुझ जैसे अनेक जिज्ञासुओ का श्रीमद्भगवतगीता
जी को सीखने का खुला दरवाजा है आपका प्रयास बहुत सरााहनिय है मै सारा कार्य आपका निरिक्षण करूगां तब आपसे पुन: चर्चा करूगां भवदीय विनोद कुमार वत्स दिल्ली
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Nice intro! A few comments for sake of accuracy and clarity..
1. “योगेश से पूछो” is not actually करण कारक in Hindi. A better example might be “तीर से मारो” or “प्यार से समझाओ”.
2. Some typos have crept into the vibhakti table for बालक –
a. Row 2: बलकान should be बालकान्
b. Row 3: बाल्केन should be बालकेन
3. It is also worth pointing out that in Hindi, the vibhakti pratyayas are typically written as a separate word after the base word (e.g. “योगेश ने”) but in Sanskrit they are merged with the base word (e.g. “योगेशः”).
4. A note on pronunciation – in Hindi, a consonant at the end of a word is typically pronounced as if it was written with a halant. For example, राम is pronounced as if it was written as राम् . This is called ‘schwa-deletion” phenomenon in linguistics. However, in Sanskrit, the golden rule is “pronounced as written”. Thus, राम must be pronounced as if it was written as Raam-uh, and must NOT be pronounced as राम् .
5. The कारकs have exactly same name in Hindi and Sanskrit, though in Sanskrit they are more commonly referred to by their number as प्रथमा, द्वितीया etc. (except for सम्बोधन).
Thanks 🙂
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Thanks for all the pointers….will edit out the errors.
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Perfect! 🙏🙏🙏
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I am really enjoying and hoping my dream come true.Wish to publish Videos on Conquering Heart Disease thru Bhgavad Gita , Wrting Gita in English , Marathi and may be Hindi poetic form.Jai Shrikrishna
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Very wonderful! Keep contributing 🙏
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Thanks 😊😊
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This blog is amazing, I’m so glad I came across it. Thank you for all the effort in creating this and sharing your knowledge.
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THANKS (^_^)
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