grammar – Living, Learning and Letting Go

Today was one of those days where I had “plans” but all of them changed.

It started with me waking up at 1:45 a.m. I had been dreaming about Sanskrit and about blogging, something that is happening with increasing frequency, but thankfully it is not usually that early. As I moved from a dream state into a more conscious state of mind, the idea of posting a Sanskrit declension matrix by making a Power Point slide show came to my mind. Then the idea of adding audio to it surfaced.

I have helped others with Power Point slide shows before but only by typing in the words. I had never done a real one and I certainly had never put audio to one. As I lay there sleepless, I started pondering how to do it. Around 3:00 a.m., since sleep didn’t seem to be coming, I got up.

I went back to bed for about an hour and a half at 5:00 a.m. and then spent most of the day working on this project. The slide show went together quickly and even the audio was reasonably easy to figure out. But then came getting correct pronunciation, correct timing and most time consuming of all, finding a way to put it into a format that the blog would accept. That last part took until 7:45 tonight! But with Grace and persistance, I finished it!

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that every noun in Sanskrit may have 7 or 8 different cases. You can identify those cases by how the word ends.

Cases:

1st case is the subject
2nd case is the object
3rd case – “with” (with a fork)
4th case- “for” (for the beggar)
5th case- “from” (from the city)
6th case- possessive or “of” (boy’s; of the boy)
7th case- “in, at, on”

The slide show will present the declensions for the pronoun “aham” which means “I”. Singular, dual (2 people) and plural (i.e. three or more) forms will be presented for each of the seven cases. You will notice that some of the words are the same but have different meanings. In those instances, we have to read the word in a sentence to determine the meaning.

So with that for an introduction, here is my PowerPoint Slide Show with Audio of the declensions for the word “aham”! (In hindsight, it would have been helpful for me to put the case number and whether the word was singular, dual or plural on the slides, but even this way it gives you a good idea what the process is like!) I hope you enjoy it.

We did a fun exercise in one of my Sanskrit classes this week. Before I show you the exercise, let me say that every noun in Sanskrit may have 7 or 8 different cases. You can identify those cases by how the word ends. The case endings also differ depending on whether the word is male, female or neuter.

Whether a word is considered male, female or neuter is very different than in English. For example, the word for house is neuter, the word for cup is male, and the word for bottle is feminine!

Cases:

1^st case is the subject
2^nd case is the object
3^rd case – “with” (with a fork)
4^th case- “for” (for the beggar)
5^th case- “from” (from the city)
6^th case- possessive or “of” (boy’s; of the boy)
7^th case- “in, at, on”

So, with that introduction, here is the exercise we did!

Start with Subject and Verb

Karuna eats.
करुणा खादति
karunaa khaadati

Add 2^nd case

Karuna ice cream eats.
करुणा पयोदिमं खादति
karunaa payodimam khaadati

Add 6^th Case

Karuna chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चाकलेहस्य पयोहिमं खादति
karunaa caakalehasya payohimam khaadati

Add adjective

Karuna lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunaa caakalehasya bahu payohimam khaadati

Add 3^rd case

Karuna, with a spoon, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunaa camasena caakalehasya bahu payohimam khaadati

Add 5^th case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunaa camasena cashaakat caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add 7^th case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add another 7^th case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, in the evening, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे सायङ्काले चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe saayangkaale caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add a direction and also another 7^th case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, in the evening, in front of the television, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे सायङ्काले दरदर्शनस्य पुरतः चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe saayangkaale dooradarshanasya purataha caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add another adjective

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, in the evening, in front of the television, slowly, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे सायङ्काले दूरदर्शनस्य पुरतः मन्दं-मन्दं चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe saayangkaale dooradarshanasya purataha mandam mandam caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add another 3^rd case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, in the evening, in front of the television, slowly, with happiness, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे सायङ्काले दूरदर्शनस्य पुरतः मन्दं-मन्दं सन्तोषेण चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोहिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe saayangkaale dooradarshanasya purataha mandam mandam santoshena caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati

Add 4^th case

Karuna, with a spoon, from a cup, at home, in the evening, in front of the television, slowly, with happiness, for fun, lots of chocolate ice cream eats.
करुणा चमसेन चषकात् गृहे सायङ्काले दूरदर्शनस्य पुरतः मन्दं-मन्दं सन्तोषेण परिहासाय चाकलेहस्य बहु-पयोदिमं खादति
karunnaa camasena cashakaat grihe saayangkaale dooradarshanasya purataha mandam mandam santoshena parihaasaya caakalehasya bahu-payohimam khaadati