Two Valid Analyses: Samāsa Key and Vibhakti Justification
A teacher in Chennai is finalising the key for a 10-mark samāsa-and-kāraka question on a prescribed verse. Students had to give the vigraha and name the samāsa for sītāpatiḥ, pītāmbaraḥ, daśānanaḥ, nīlotpalam and caturbhujaḥ (2 marks each, 10 marks total), and separately justify the case in rāmo grāmaṃ gacchati and rāmaḥ grāme tiṣṭhati. Of 44 scripts, 12 called pītāmbaraḥ karmadhāraya and 9 called it bahuvrīhi; six students wrote grāme gacchati and defended it as 'the place where he goes'. Two prescribed keys in the staff room disagree on pītāmbaraḥ. The teacher must publish one key before the papers reach the moderator, and does not want students who reasoned correctly but chose the other analysis to lose the whole 2 marks.
1. Write the key lines (vigraha + samāsa name) for the five compounds and state the operational test you used to separate karmadhāraya from bahuvrīhi.
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Key:
- sītāpatiḥ = sītāyāḥ patiḥ - ṣaṣṭhī-tatpuruṣa (the compound denotes the person himself).
- daśānanaḥ = daśa ānanāni yasya saḥ - bahuvrīhi (denotes a person possessing ten faces, i.e. Rāvaṇa).
- caturbhujaḥ = catvāro bhujā yasya saḥ - bahuvrīhi (Viṣṇu).
- nīlotpalam = nīlam utpalam - karmadhāraya (viśeṣaṇa + viśeṣya; the thing denoted is the lotus itself).
- pītāmbaram = pītam ambaraṃ yasya saḥ - bahuvrīhi when a person is meant; pītam ambaram - karmadhāraya when the garment itself is meant. See the next task.
Operational test: a bahuvrīhi denotes something other than its last member - ask 'is the compound a name for the final member, or for a possessor of it?' nīlotpalam is a lotus; daśānanaḥ is not a face, it is a person. A karmadhāraya's last member is what the compound names. A tatpuruṣa's last member is also what it names, but the first member stands in a case relation to it - hence the vigraha in a different vibhakti (sītāyāḥ patiḥ).
2. Twelve students said karmadhāraya and nine said bahuvrīhi for pītāmbaraḥ. Rule on the key and state what must be printed alongside it.
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Both answers can earn the 2 marks, but only with a stated referent.
The compound pītāmbaram contains no information about what it names: the word is a yellow garment (pītam ambaram, karmadhāraya), and it is also a standard epithet of a yellow-robed person, Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu (bahuvrīhi). The analysis follows the referent, and the referent comes from the sentence, not from the compound.
Key line: pītāmbaraḥ - bahuvrīhi if the passage refers to a person (pītāmbaro hariḥ); karmadhāraya if it refers to the garment itself (pītāmbaram vastram). Both accepted if the student names the referent.
Marking consequence: a student who writes one name with no referent has made an unsupported choice - award 1. A student who writes 'karmadhāraya, because the verse here speaks of the cloth' has done the analysis and earns 2. Print the referent requirement in the key so the moderator sees the criterion, not a compromise.
3. Six students wrote grāme gacchati and defended it as 'the place where he goes'. Grade this against rāmo grāmaṃ gacchati and rāmaḥ grāme tiṣṭhati, and explain the rule.
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Mark the destination sentence wrong, but credit the reasoning in the comment.
Rule: with verbs of motion (gati), the destination is treated as the karman and takes the second vibhakti, not the locative - rāmo grāmaṃ gacchati. The locative marks adhikaraṇa, the place where an action occurs without motion towards it - rāmaḥ grāme tiṣṭhati. The six students have carried the locative over from the verb of rest because both sentences mention a village.
Fair marking: 0 for the vibhakti cell, plus a written note that the argument ('it is the place') is the correct kind of argument and simply picks the wrong kāraka. One qualification worth knowing: grāme gacchati can be forced to mean 'he moves about inside the village', i.e. motion within a location rather than towards it. Say this in the key, because a bright student may raise it - but it is not the reading of grāmaṃ gacchati, and it should not earn the mark in a question that asks which kāraka is used for the goal of motion.