Vedic Sanskrit is the name given by modern scholarship to the oldest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. Sanskrit is the language that is found in the four Vedas, in particular, the Rigveda, the oldest of them, dated to have been composed roughly over the period from 1500 to 1000 BCE. Before its standardization as Sanskrit, the Vedic language was a purely spoken language during that period used before the introduction of writing in the language.Fortson, §10.20–10.28.Macdonnell, §1.2.Reich, p. 122.
The Vedic language has inherited from its ultimate-parent (the Proto-Indo-European language) an elaborate system of morphology, more of which has been preserved in Sanskrit as a whole than in other kindred languages such as Ancient Greek or Latin.Fortson, §10.41.Whitney p. 100 ch. 8. Its grammar differs greatly from the later Classical Sanskrit in many regards, one being that this complex inherited morphology simplified over time.
History
The language descended from the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, which entered the Indian subcontinent with the arrival of the Proto-Indo-Aryans dated to be around 1800–1500 BCE.Fortson, §10.20.Reich, ch. 6. The Vedic hymns are estimated to have been composed between 1500 and 1000 BCE, with the language of each hymn fixed at the time of its oral composition,Jamison & Brereton, pp.14ff. establishing a religious canon around a literary tradition.
As the popular speech unavoidably evolved over the centuries the Vedic hymns began to be increasingly inaccessible. In order to "arrest" language change, there arose a rigorous linguistic tradition aimed at preserving the literary language, culminating in the work of Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyayī, dated around 600–400 BCE, which marks the beginning of 'Sanskrit', referred to in contradistinction to the Vedic language as 'Classical.
Despite these efforts, by the time of Pāṇini's final definition, the language had undergone some changes, especially in grammar. The following sections will focus on these differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Those features that were not incorporated into the Classical Language by Panini can be seen in Classical Sanskrit and related pages.Burrow, §2.1.Whitney, p. xi–xv.
Differences between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit
Over time, the language that would become Classical Sanskrit reduced and regularized much of the complex morphology that it had originally inherited from its parent the Proto-Indo-European language:Coulson, p. xv–xvi.
Vedic used the older athematic approach to inflection far more than the classical language, which tended to replace them using thematic forms in their place. The three synthetic past tensesMacdonell, §122 (imperfect, perfect and aorist) were still clearly distinguished semantically in Vedic. The imperfect, perfect, and aorist didn't have the values of their English namesakes: The imperfect was used as a general past tense. The perfect was used like a proximal present perfect, general past, and as a present tense The aorist was used like a proximal present perfect.Whitney §779 §823 §926 A fifth mood, the subjunctive/injunctive, also existed. There were more than 12 ways of forming infinitives in Vedic, of which Classical Sanskrit retained only one form. ī-stems differentiate the devī́ and vrkī́s feminines, a difference lost in Classical Sanskrit.
Nouns
Basics
Declension of a noun in Sanskrit involves the interplay of two 'dimensions': 3 numbers and 8 cases, yielding a combination of 24 possible forms, although owing to syncretism of some forms, the practical number can be lower.Bucknell, p. 11.
In addition, adjectives behave much the same way morphologically as nouns do, and can conveniently be considered together. While the same noun cannot be seen to be of more than one gender, adjectives change gender on the basis of the noun they are being applied to, along with case and number, thus giving the following variables:Bucknell, p. 12-16.Whitney, §261–266.
+ 1 3 numbers singular, dual, plural 2 3 genders masculine, feminine, neuter 3 8 cases nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, vocative
Building blocks Roots
The oldest system of declension was to affix the endings directly to the nominal root. This was an ancient feature already in decline in later Proto-Indo-European. Of the daughter languages, this system has been best preserved by Vedic Sanskrit.Burrow, §4.2
+ Ancient noun roots in kindred languages Sanskrit Latin PIE Glossary foot vā́c- vōx, vōc- *wṓkʷs speech rā́j- rēx, rēg- *h₃rḗǵs king, ruler
Stems
In Proto-Indo-European, a new system developed wherein an intermediary called the thematic vowel is inserted to the root before the final endings are appended: *-o- which in Sanskrit becomes -a-, producing the thematic stem.
Declension of a thematic stem is less complicated as a host of Sandhi rules apply no more, and the later stages of the Sanskrit language see an increase in the profusion of thematic nouns. Thus in classical Sanskrit, the thematic pā́da-s is more likely to be found than its athematic predecessor.Fortson, §6.43.Burrow, §4.3
Cases
Sanskrit nouns are declined for eight cases:
nominative: marks the subject of a verb. accusative: used for the direct object of a transitive verb. genitive: marks a noun as modifying another noun. dative: used to indicate the indirect object of a transitive verb. instrumental: marks the instrument or means by, or with, which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ablative: used to express motion away from something. locative: corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions in, on, at, and by. vocative: used for a word that identifies an addressee.Fortson, §6.
Endings
The basic scheme of suffixation is given in the table below and applies to many nouns and adjectives.
However, according to the gender and the final consonant or vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are internal sandhi rules dictating the form of the inflected word. Furthermore, these are standalone forms, which when used in actual phrases are subject to external sandhi.MacDonell, III.71, p. 33.Whitney, §164–179.
SingularDualPluralMasc./FemNeu.Masc./FemNeu.Masc./FemNeu.Nominative -s-Ø-au-ī-as-iAccusative -amInstrumental-ā-bhyām-bhisDative-e-bhyasAblative-asGenitive-os-āmLocative-i-su
Root Declension
This is the old athematic method of Proto-Indo-European declension still in active use in Vedic.Whitney, §383–399.
+ Consonant-stem singular Case Std Ending pád- vā́c- rā́j- mā́s- víś- Nominative, Vocative -s pā́t vā́k rā́ṭ mā́s víṭ Accusative -am pā́d·am vā́c·am rā́j·am mā́s·am víś·am Instrumental -ā pad·ā́ vāc·ā́ ráj·ā mā́s·ā viś·ā́ Dative -e pad·é vāc·é rā́j·e mā́s·e viś·é Ablative, Genitive -as pad·ás vāc·ás rā́j·as mā́s·as viś·ás Locative -i pad·í vāc·í rā́j·i mā́s·i viś·í
+ Consonant-stem dual Case Std Ending pád- vā́c- rā́j- mā́s- vís- Nominative Accusative Vocative -au pā́d·au vā́c·au rā́j·au mā́s·ā viś·ā Instrumental Dative Ablative -bhyām pad·bhyā́m vāg·bhyā́m rā́g·bhyām mā́d·bhyām viḍ·bhyā́m Genitive Locative -os pad·ós vāc·ós rā́j·os mā́s·os viś·ós
+ Consonant-stem plural Case Std Ending pád- vā́c- rā́j- mā́s- víś- Nominative, Vocative -as pā́d·as vā́c·as rā́j·as mā́s·as víś·as Accusative -as pad·ás vāc·ás rā́j·as mās·ás víś·as Instrumental -bhis pad·bhís vāg·bhís rā́g·bhis mād·bhís viḍ·bhís Dative Ablative -bhyas pad·bhyás vāg·bhyás rā́g·bhyas mād·bhyás viḍ·bhyás Genitive -ām pad·ā́m vāc·ā́m rā́j·ām mās·ā́m viś·ā́m Locative -su pat·sú vāk·ṣú rā́k·ṣu mās·su vik·ṣú
Root ī-stem, vṛkī́s and devī́- feminines
A group of 80 polysyllabic ī-stems, most of which are feminine, are accented on the final vowel. Known as vṛkī́s feminines,Beekes, §13.2.5. these exhibit different behavior during declension compared to the later language, such as the nominative singular retaining the -s ending, and in the accent staying on the -i-.
Further, a number of largely feminine ī-stems, known as the devī́-feminines, also exhibit some differences compared to the later language.
These, along with root stems in -ī, can be seen below:
+ Root ī-stem singular Case Std Ending Treatment Ending dhī́- rathī́- devī́- Nominative, Vocative -s -s dhī́·s rathī́·s devī́ Accusative -am short(i) + y + -am -iyam dhíy·am rathí·am devī́·m Instrumental -ā short(i) + y + ā -iyā dhiy·ā́ rathí·ā devy·ā́ Dative -e (y) -ye dhiy·é rathí·e devy·aí Ablative, Genitive -as (y) -yas dhiy·ás rathí·ás devy·ā́s Locative -i – devy·ā́m
+ Root ī-stem dual Case Std Ending Treatment Ending dhī- rathī́- devī́- Nominative Accusative Vocative -au -au -ā -ā dhi·yā́ rathí·ā devī́ Instrumental Dative Ablative -bhyām – -bhyām dhī·bhyā́m rathī́·bhyām deví·bhyām Genitive Locative -os – -os dhiy·ós rathí·os devy·ós
+ Root ī-stem plural Case Std Ending Treatment Ending dhī- rathī́- devī́- Nominative, Vocative -as (y) -as dhíy·as rathí·as devī́·s Accusative -as (y) -s dhíy·as rathí·s devī́·s Instrumental -bhis – -bhis dhī·bhís rathī́·bhs devī́·bhis Dative Ablative -bhyas – -bhyas rathī́·bhyas devī́·bhyas Genitive -ām (n) -nām dhī·nā́m rathī́·nā́m devī́·nām Locative -su – -su dhī·sú rathī́·ṣu devī́·ṣu
Compounds
Vedic Sanskrit inherits from the Proto-Indo-European period the ability to combine two or more words into a single one treated as a simple word with regard to accent, inflexion and construction.
The Vedic language, both in the frequency and the length of the compounds is very similar to the Greek of Homer. In the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda, no compounds of more than 3 independent members are found, and even compounds of 3 members are rare: pūrva·kāma·kṛ́tvan, "fulfilling former wishes."Macdonnell, §185 In the later language, both the frequency and the number of words used to form compounds greatly increases.Coulson p xxi
The main types of compound-forming were the co-ordinative, determinative, possessive, and the adverbial.Whitney, §480.
Numerals
Verbs
Basics
Verb conjugation in Sanskrit involves the interplay of number, person, voice, mood and tense, with the following variables:Bucknell, p. 34.Macdonnell, §121–122.Whitney §535 §574
+ 1 3 numbers singular, dual, plural 2 3 persons first, second, third 3 3 voices active, middle, passive 4 5 moods indicative, optative, imperative, conditional, subjunctive/injunctive 5 6 tenses present, imperfect, perfect, aorist, future, periphrastic future
Further, participles are considered part of the verbal systems although they are not verbs themselves, and as with other Sanskrit nouns, they can be declined across seven or eight cases, for three genders and three numbers.Burrow, p. 367
As many as a dozen types of infinitives can be found in Vedic, although only a couple of types are frequent.
Building blocks
Stem formation
The starting point for conjugation is the root. As a first step, the root may be subject to treatment to form a stem, to which personal endings are suffixed. The types of possible treatment are:Burrow, §7.3.Whitney, ch 8.
Suffixion: the theme vowel -a- may be appended, or one of several other suffixes -ya-, -ó- / -nó-, -nā-, and -aya-.Burrow, §7.8 Infixion: A nasal infix (n, ñ, ṇ, ṅ) may be inserted within the root, which when accented is -ná-.Whitney, §683 The root may undergo reduplication.Whitney, §588–590. In some tenses or moods, the augment á- may be prefixed.Burrow, §7.5. In many cases, the accent may vary between the root and the ending, accompanied by corresponding changes in the gradation of the root vowel.Burrow, §7.5
If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the -grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the -grade vowel as ā + V. + Grades Vowel (zero) grade a, – i, ī u, ū , , Short diphthong () grade a, ai ai au ar al Long diphthong () grade ā, āi āi āu ār āl
Personal endings