Karaka and Vibhakti: Case Usage and Upapada
Karaka and Vibhakti: case usage
Kāraka is the semantic role; vibhakti is the case ending. The exam asks you to analyse a sentence, name the kāraka and justify the vibhakti.
Six kārakas
- kartṛ - agent; karma - object; karaṇa - instrument.
- sampradāna - recipient; apādāna - source; adhikaraṇa - locus.
Normal vibhakti mapping
- Prathamā: kartṛ in active voice; also vocative.
- Dvitīyā: karma.
- Tṛtīyā: karaṇa; also accompaniment.
- Caturthī: sampradāna.
- Pañcamī: apādāna.
- Ṣaṣṭhī: relation, not a kāraka.
- Saptamī: adhikaraṇa.
Upapada Upapada is a word that stands in construction with a kṛt suffix and conditions it, as kumbha in kumbhakāraḥ. Do not confuse upapada with kāraka: upapada is a grammatical co-occurent, not a semantic role.
Worked example rāmaḥ daṇḍena sarpam mārayati.
- rāmaḥ = kartṛ, prathamā, because he is the agent.
- daṇḍena = karaṇa, tṛtīyā, because the staff is the means.
- sarpam = karma, dvitīyā, because the snake is the object affected.
- mārayati = kriyā.
Traps
- In passive voice the karma becomes prathamā: rāmeṇa sarpaḥ māryate.
- Ṣaṣṭhī is relation, not a kāraka.
- Do not assign case by English preposition alone.
- Upapada and kāraka are different labels.