PSEB SS Sanskrit flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Sandhi
- The phonological fusion of adjacent sounds at word or morpheme boundaries in Sanskrit, classified into vowel sandhi, consonant sandhi, and visarga sandhi according to the final sound of the first member.
- Guṇa
- The strengthened vowel grade replacing a simple vowel before certain suffixes: a/ā becomes a, i/ī becomes e, u/ū becomes o, and ṛ becomes ar in Sanskrit derivation.
- Vṛddhi
- The strongest vowel grade in Sanskrit: a/ā becomes ā, i/ī becomes ai, u/ū becomes au, and ṛ becomes ār, used before secondary suffixes and in some sandhi outcomes.
- Visarga
- A final voiceless h-sound written ḥ, arising from original -s or -r; before a voiced sound it usually becomes -o, and before a vowel other than a it often becomes -r.
- Anusvāra
- The nasalized marker ṃ placed after a vowel. Final -m becomes anusvāra before a consonant, as in rāmaṃ vadati, and it may assimilate to a following nasal.
- Vibhakti
- A grammatical case ending in Sanskrit. There are eight: nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and vocative, each occurring in singular, dual, and plural.
- Triliṅga
- The three grammatical genders of Sanskrit nouns: puṃliṅga (masculine), strīliṅga (feminine), and napuṃsakaliṅga (neuter). Gender is lexical and must be learned with each noun.
- Daśa gaṇāḥ
- The ten traditional verb classes: bhvādi, adādi, juhotyādi, divādi, svādi, tudādi, rudhādi, tanādi, kryādi, and curādi. Class 1 adds -a, class 10 adds -aya- to the root.
- Laṭ lakāra
- The present tense in Sanskrit, formed from the present stem plus primary endings such as -ti, -taḥ, -anti in the third person. It expresses present time and general statements.
- Liṭ lakāra
- The perfect tense in Sanskrit, marked by reduplication of the root and special endings. It typically expresses past action not witnessed by the speaker, contrasting with the aorist.
- Luṅ lakāra
- The aorist tense in Sanskrit, denoting past action, often recent or witnessed. It uses augment a- plus special endings and shows several formation types, including root and sigmatic aorists.
- Lṛṭ lakāra
- The simple future in Sanskrit, formed with the suffix -sya-/-iṣya- plus primary endings, as in kariṣyati, 'he will do'. It contrasts with the periphrastic future.
- Vidhiliṅ
- The optative mood in Sanskrit, expressing possibility, permission, or polite command. It is formed with the suffix -yā- (or -ī- in the ātmanepada) between root and endings.
- Ātmanepada
- The 'middle' voice of Sanskrit verbs, whose endings (-te, -āte, -ante, etc.) typically mark action for the agent's own benefit, reciprocal action, or certain fixed roots.
- Parasmaipada
- The 'active' voice of Sanskrit verbs, using endings such as -ti, -taḥ, -anti. Many roots take parasmaipada only, some take ātmanepada only, and some take both.
- Kāraka
- The semantic role of a noun relative to the verb, such as kartṛ (agent), karma (object), or karaṇa (instrument). Kāraka analysis underlies Pāṇini's case rules.
- Samāsa
- A compound word in Sanskrit formed by joining two or more stems. Main types are tatpuruṣa, dvandva, bahuvrīhi, dvigu, avyayībhāva, and karmadhāraya.
- Tatpuruṣa
- A Sanskrit compound in which the first member determines the second, as in rājaputra, 'king's son'. The compound's gender and number follow the final member.
- Bahuvrīhi
- A possessive compound that denotes something characterized by its members, as in dīrghabāhu, 'long-armed one'. The compound refers to an outside entity, not to its parts.
- Dvandva
- A copulative Sanskrit compound joining members in coordination, as in rāmalakṣmaṇau, 'Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa'. It often takes dual or plural number matching the count of members.
- Kṛt pratyaya
- A primary suffix added directly to a verbal root to form nouns or adjectives, such as -aka in kāraka or -tṛ in kartṛ. Kṛt forms are distinguished from taddhita secondary suffixes.
- Taddhita pratyaya
- A secondary suffix added to a nominal stem to form a derivative noun or adjective, such as -ya in rājya or -in in rājin. These suffixes express possession, relation, or descent.
- Upasarga
- A verbal prefix such as pra, anu, or sam that modifies the meaning of a root, as pra + gam, 'to go forth'. Twenty upasargas are traditionally listed.
- Nipāta
- An indeclinable particle in Sanskrit, such as api, eva, or tu, that does not inflect for case, gender, or number and often carries emphatic or connective meaning.
- Avyaya
- An indeclinable word in Sanskrit, including particles, prepositions, and adverbs, that keeps one form regardless of grammatical context and is unaffected by case endings.
- Devānāgarī
- The script in which Sanskrit is commonly written. Its forty-nine primary letters include vowels, consonants arranged by place of articulation, and semivowels and sibilants.
- Śiva-sūtras
- Fourteen short aphoristic lists of sounds attributed to Śiva, arranged so that the last sound of each list serves as a pratyāhāra marker for Pāṇini's phonological rules.
- Pratyāhāra
- A shorthand sound-group in Pāṇinian grammar formed by taking the first sound of a list plus a final marker, such as 'ac' for all vowels or 'hal' for all consonants.
- Aṣṭādhyāyī
- Pāṇini's grammar of Sanskrit in eight chapters, containing nearly four thousand sūtras that describe phonology, morphology, and syntax through concise rules and metarules.
- Śikṣā
- One of the six Vedāṅgas, concerned with correct pronunciation, including articulation, accent, quantity, and euphony. It underpins the oral transmission of Vedic recitation.
- Chandas
- The Vedāṅga dealing with Vedic meter. Major Sanskrit meters include anuṣṭubh (eight syllables per quarter), triṣṭubh (eleven), and jagatī (twelve).
- Sandhi of final -t
- Final -t becomes -d before a voiced consonant, as in tat + labhate → tad labhate, and may become -c before a voiceless palatal. It remains -t before voiceless sounds.