Vyakarana: Sandhi, Samasa, Karaka, Pratyaya and Rupa
Vyakarana: grammar in use
Vyakarana items are applied: sandhi, samasa, karaka and vibhakti, pratyaya, dhatu-rupa, and shabda-rupa. Answer by showing the operation, not by guessing the label.
Core rules
- Sandhi: savarna-dirgha joins like vowels; guna gives a, e, o; vriddhi gives a, ai, au; yan changes i, u, r to y, v, r; visarga sandhi depends on the following sound. Example: vidya + alaya = vidyalaya, savarna-dirgha.
- Samasa: make a vigraha. rajaputra = rajnah putrah, tatpurusha; nilotpala = nilam utpalam, karmadharaya; ramah ca sita ca = ramasita, dvandva; bahuvrihi points to an outside noun.
- Karaka: kartari prathama, karmani dvitīyā, karanena tritīyā, sampradane caturthī, apadane pancamī, sambandhe sasthī, adhikarane saptamī. In “ramah phalam khadati,” ramah is karta in prathama, phalam is karma in dvitīyā.
- Pratyaya: ktva or lyap means having done; tumun means to do; kta and ktavatu are past participles; shatr and shanac are present participles.
- Dhatu-rupa: learn person and number with the class; for example path: pathati, pathatah, pathanti.
- Shabda-rupa: decline by ending and gender; do not mix a-karanta and i-karanta patterns.
Worked example
“ramah phalani khaditva grham gacchati.” Parse: ramah is karta, prathama singular; phalani is karma, dvitīyā plural; khaditva is ktva-pratyaya, “having eaten”; gacchati is present, third singular. Translation: Rama, having eaten fruits, goes home. Reasoning: the indeclinable participle keeps the same subject as the main verb.
Traps
- Labelling samasa without vigraha.
- Using dvitīyā for the agent.
- Forgetting visarga before a vowel.
- Mixing parasmaipada and atmanepada endings.
- Declining a word by the wrong gender.