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Ancient Sanskrit Online

Lesson 2

Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum

Many of the gods in the Rigveda are solar deities. In the first lesson Agni was invoked as the universal fire of heaven accompanying the rising of the sun, and this second lesson text is addressed to the primum mobile, the divinity who is the driving force behind the solar cycle. Savitar's holy laws are absolute, and he has power both to bring the world to life and to set it at rest: â´paç cid asya vratá â´ nímrgrâ, ayám cid vâ´to ramate párijman 'at his command even the waters are still, even this wind comes to rest in its circling' (II, 38, 2).

Reading and Textual Analysis

The text is the first six verses of a seven-verse poem, IV, 53 (349). The metre is jagatî, verses of four lines of twelve syllables each. The name Savitar is an agent noun (see grammar section 8.1) from the verb /sû, suváti 'generate, impel', and the poet plays on the name with other derivatives of the root: Savitar is the prasavîtr´, the bringer to life, in verse 5, rousing (prasuván) the world in verse 3 with his sávîman, his generative power.

The poem is characterized by antithesis. Savitar is both prasavîtr´ 'the bringer to life' and nivéçana, 'the source of rest', and such counterpointing runs through the verses, between divyá and pâ´rthiva, heavenly and earthly, jágat and sthâtr´, the moving and the still, and between the dark regions of air and the spheres of light, rájâmsi and rocanâ´, in the version of one translator the espaces-sombres and the espaces-lumineux of the Rigvedic cosmos.

tád devásya savitúr vâ´riyam mahád
vrnîmáhe ásurasya prácetasah
chardír yéna dâçúse yáchati tmánâ
tán no mahâ´m úd ayân devó aktúbhih

divó dhartâ´ bhúvanasya prajâ´patih
piçángam drâpím práti muñcate kavíh
vicaksanáh pratháyann âprnánn urú
ájîjanat savitâ´ sumnám ukthíyam

â´prâ rájâmsi diviyâ´ni pâ´rthivâ
çlókam deváh krnute svâ´ya dhármane
prá bâhû´ asrâk savitâ´ sávîmani
niveçáyan prasuvánn aktúbhir jágat

ádâbhiyo bhúvanâni pracâ´kaçad
vratâ´ni deváh savitâ´bhí raksate
prâ´srâg bâhû´ bhúvanasya prajâ´bhiyo
dhrtávrato mahó ájmasya râjati

trír antáriksam savitâ´ mahitvanâ´
trî´ rájâmsi paribhû´s trî´ni rocanâ´
tisró dívah prthivî´s tisrá invati
tribhír vrataír abhí no raksati tmánâ

brhátsumnah prasavîtâ´ nivéçano
jágata sthâtúr ubháyasya yó vaçî´
sá no deváh savitâ´ çárma yachatu
asmé ksáyâya trivárûtham ámhasah

Lesson Text

tád devásya savitúr vâ´riyam mahád
vrnîmáhe ásurasya prácetasah
chardír yéna dâçúse yáchati tmánâ
tán no mahâ´m úd ayân devó aktúbhih

divó dhartâ´ bhúvanasya prajâ´patih
piçángam drâpím práti muñcate kavíh
vicaksanáh pratháyann âprnánn urú
ájîjanat savitâ´ sumnám ukthíyam

â´prâ rájâmsi diviyâ´ni pâ´rthivâ
çlókam deváh krnute svâ´ya dhármane
prá bâhû´ asrâk savitâ´ sávîmani
niveçáyan prasuvánn aktúbhir jágat

ádâbhiyo bhúvanâni pracâ´kaçad
vratâ´ni deváh savitâ´bhí raksate
prâ´srâg bâhû´ bhúvanasya prajâ´bhiyo
dhrtávrato mahó ájmasya râjati

trír antáriksam savitâ´ mahitvanâ´
trî´ rájâmsi paribhû´s trî´ni rocanâ´
tisró dívah prthivî´s tisrá invati
tribhír vrataír abhí no raksati tmánâ

brhátsumnah prasavîtâ´ nivéçano
jágata sthâtúr ubháyasya yó vaçî´
sá no deváh savitâ´ çárma yachatu
asmé ksáyâya trivárûtham ámhasah

Translation

We accept that great, precious gift of divine Savitar,
Of the mindful, spiritual Lord,
With which by his nature he extends a shield for the worshipper.
The mighty god has proffered it to us with twilight rays.
Upholder of the sky, Lord of the creatures of existence,
The seer spreads out a variegated mantle.
Far-sighted, extending, filling space
Savitar has created a boon worthy of holy song.
He has filled the dark regions, heavenly and earthly,
The god brings forth a song of praise for his own fixed order.
Savitar has stretched out his arms in giving life -
Bringing to rest, rousing with twilight rays the moving world.
Undeceivable, overseeing beings,
Divine Savitar guards the holy laws.
He has stretched out his arms to the creatures of existence,
He whose command is firm rules shining over the great course.
Savitar, thrice in majesty encompassing the atmosphere,
The three dark regions, the three spheres of light,
Gives motion to threefold heaven and earth,
By his nature he guards us with the three holy laws.
The bringer to life, the source of rest, of high benevolence,
Who holds sway over both the moving and the standing world,
May he, divine Savitar, extend refuge to us,
With three-fold security for us, for home, from trouble.

Grammar

6. Nominal stems in -a.

Nouns and adjectives with stems in -a (masculine and neuter), and -â (feminine), occur more frequently than any others. In the first lesson text the nouns bhúvana (n) 'being, existence', sû´rya (m) 'sun' and the names Mitra and Varuna all belong to this group, as do the adjectives vaiçvânará 'for all men' and satyá 'true'. In the second lesson text devá (m) 'divine, god', vâ´rya 'precious', 'precious thing' (n), ásura (m) 'divine lord', ukthyà 'worthy of praise', prajâ´ (f) 'creature' and vratá (n) 'holy law', among others, belong to this declension. Past participles, like jâtá 'born', prstá 'invoked', hitá 'placed', also follow this inflection. Participles are verbal adjectives, and agree with their subject. The table gives the forms that would occur if made from devá 'divine, god' and prajâ´ 'creature', to illustrate the usual masculine and feminine endings.

        Singular           Plural    
    Masculine       Feminine   Masculine       Feminine
Nom   devás       prajâ´   devâ´s, devâ´sas       prajâ´s, prajâ´sas
Acc   devám       prajâ´m   devâ´n       prajâ´s
Ins   devéna, devâ´       prajáyâ, prajâ´   devébhis, devaís       prajâ´bhis
Dat   devâ´ya       prajâ´yai   devébhyas       prajâ´bhyas
Abl   devâ´t       prajâ´yâs   devébhyas       prajâ´bhyas
Gen   devásya       prajâ´yâs   devâ´nâm       prajâ´nâm
Loc   devé       prajâ´yâm   devésu       prajâ´su
Voc   déva       práje   dévâs, dévâsas       prájâs
Dual   Masculine       Feminine
Nom, Acc   devâ´, devaú       prajé
Ins, Dat, Abl   devâ´bhyâm       prajâ´bhyâm
Gen, Loc   deváyos       prajáyos
Voc   dévâ, dévau       práje

The declension of neuter nouns in -a follows the masculine declension, with the exception of the nominative singular which has the same form as the accusative, vratám, and the endings of the nominative/accusative/vocative dual and plural, which are the same in all three cases: dual vraté (vocative vráte, with the accent shifted to the first syllable), plural vratâ´ and vratâ´ni (vrátâ, vrátâni).

7. Present active participles in -ant.

The inflection of past participles in -a, like jâtá 'born', was mentioned above. Present participles, like finite verbs, are formed in both the active and middle voice. Those formed in the middle voice also follow the inflection of nouns in -a, and will be discussed in the next lesson. Present active participles have stems in -ant, as in Latin ferens, ferent- 'bearing'. The second lesson text is notable for the present active participles that it contains describing the influence of Savitar on the world, all of which are nominative and masculine, agreeing with their subject: â-prnán 'filling', pra-suván 'rousing', and the causative forms pratháyan 'causing to spread' and ni-veçáyan 'bringing to rest'. The table gives the masculine endings that would occur if formed from the verbal root /arc, árcati 'praise'. Note that the ablative/genitive singular and accusative plural have the same form.

    Singular   Dual   Plural
Nom   árcan   árcantâ, árcantau   árcantas
Acc   árcantam   árcantâ, árcantau   árcatas
Ins   árcatâ       árcadbhis
Dat   árcate   árcadbhyâm   árcadbhyas
Abl   árcatas       árcadbhyas
Gen   árcatas   árcatos   árcatâm
Loc   árcati       árcatsu

The neuter endings differ only in the nominative/accusative/vocative, again the same in all three cases: singular árcat, plural árcanti (the noun jágat in the third verse of the lesson text is in form a neuter participle, as explained in the gloss). All dual neuter forms are rare in the Rigveda; as mentioned in Lesson 1 deities are often in pairs, but they are either masculine or feminine, and although eyes are neuter, other paired parts of the body -- ears, arms, hands and feet -- are all masculine. The only examples of neuter duals from present active participles are yatî´ 'going', and adjectival brhatî´, from brhánt -- see below. The feminine endings of present active participles are secondary, adding the suffix î to the stem, and will be treated in Lesson 4.

Some verbs, primarily those that reduplicate their root in the present tense like /dâ, dá-dâ-ti 'give', do not show the distinguishing n of the masculine singular, and the nominative is the same as the neuter, dádat, with the accusative dádatam, nominative plural dádatas. Intensives, like pracâ´kaçat 'overseeing' in verse 4 of the lesson text, are also formed by reduplication, and are characterised by the same masculine endings.

7.1. Adjectives participial in form: mahánt and brhánt.

Some adjectives that have lost the participial sense remain participial in form, like mahánt 'mighty' in the first and last lines of the first verse, and brhánt 'lofty', the first element of the compound brhát-sumna in the last verse. brhánt follows the declension given above, but mahánt lengthens the vowel of the suffix in some nominative and accusative forms: the masculine nominative singular, which occurs in the last line of the first verse, is mahâ´n, accusative mahâ´ntam, but neuter nominative and accusative mahát. Where the accent of the present active participle falls on the suffix rather than the stem, as with mahánt and brhánt, it moves to the ending in some cases: dative singular brhaté, genitive plural brhatâ´m.

The following lines illustrate the use of some present active participial forms. Commas in the text indicate poetic line ends.

8. Nominal stems in -tr.
8.1. Agent nouns.

There are two main classes of stems in -tr. The 'agent' nouns (the English word derives from another Latin present participle, agens, agent- 'acting, doing something') relate closely to their verbal root: from /dâ 'give' dâtr´ 'giver', like Greek dôtêr; with vowel gradation netr´ 'leader, guide' from /nî 'lead', stotr´ 'praiser' from /stu 'praise'; and, with connecting -i-, janitr´ 'male parent' from /jan 'produce, bear', avitr´ 'helper' from /av 'help, favour' and jaritr´ 'singer' from /jar 'sing, sing praise'. The name Savitar is an agent noun, 'enlivener', from /sû 'generate', and the lesson text plays on the name with related words, as described in the Textual Analysis. The majority of the agent nouns in -tr are masculine, like dhartr´ 'upholder', from /dhr 'hold fast', one of the epithets of Savitar, and accented on the suffix. The table gives the forms that would occur if made from dhartr´. The feminine endings are again secondary, and formed in the same way as the feminines of participles; see Lesson 4.

    Singular   Dual   Plural
Nom   dhartâ´   dhartâ´râ, dhartâ´rau   dhartâ´ras
Acc   dhartâ´ram   dhartâ´râ, dhartâ´rau   dhartr´n
Ins   dhartrâ´       dhartr´bhis
Dat   dhartré   dhartr´bhyâm   dhartr´bhyas
Abl   dhartúr       dhartr´bhyas
Gen   dhartúr       dhartrnâ´m
Loc   dhartári       dhartr´su
Voc   dhártar   dhártârâ, dhártârau   dhártâras
8.2. Nouns of relationship.

The declension of an important group of nouns of relationship is similar. pitr´ 'father', mâtr´ 'mother', bhrâ´tr 'brother', and duhitr´ 'daughter' are ancient words with clear parallels in other Indo-European languages. The masculine declension differs from that of the agent nouns only in having a short vowel in the second syllable of some forms of the nominative and accusative, as shown below:

    Singular   Dual   Plural
Nom   pitâ´, bhrâ´tâ   pitárâ*, bhrâ´tarâ*   pitáras*, bhrâ´taras*
Acc   pitáram*, bhrâ´taram*   pitárâ*, bhrâ´tarâ*   pitr´n, bhrâ´trn

In addition, the dual genitive and locative form pitarós is also regularly found in the Rigveda.

Feminine nouns of relationship in -tr decline like the masculines, with the single difference of the accusative plural, which ends in -s not -n, so mâtr´s (compare the feminine accusative plural of the -i and -u stems, -îs and -ûs, not -în and ûn, described in section 3 in the first lesson). svásr 'sister', the stem of which is without the t as in Latin, pater, mater, frater, but soror, shows the long a of the agent nouns in the nominative and accusative: svásâram, svásârâ, svásâras (accusative plural svásrs). The word sûnú, which declines like mánu 'man', like English 'son' does not belong to this family group.

9. Prepositions and preverbs.

Prepositions, used regularly in English to express direction or place ('we go to Italy', 'he is in the garden'), occur infrequently in Sanskrit, because many of the relations that they express are conveyed by the oblique cases. For example, in the sentence "The cat sat on the mat", "mat" in Sanskrit would simply appear in the locative case; there is no need for a preposition. So far we have encountered only one example, ápi in passage number 7 in the first lesson: tvé ápi kratú máma 'in you (locative) my power (kratú, masculine, a word that describes mental rather than physical ability)'. Such 'prepositions' in Sanskrit usually follow the word that they govern, as in this example, and are therefore more correctly called postpositions. Even here ápi is not required by the grammar and could have been omitted; it is supplied for poetic reasons.

However, the use of preverbs, prepositional prefixes with verbs, is very common in the Rigveda, and continues into the later language, when preverbs and verbs are compounded. In the group of sample passages given to illustrate the last grammar section most of the verbs are accompanied by preverbs, which may, like prepositions, follow the verb: áprathatam prthivî´m mâtáram ví 'you two spread out mother earth' (42). The extensive use of preverbs enables the meaning of the verb to be modified in a rich variety of ways. They are listed here together with an indication of their underlying sense. However, as the examples that we have so far encountered show, this is only a loose guide to the way in which preverbs can shape and extend the meaning of the verb. Some preverb/verb combinations remain similar in meaning to the basic verb, but others have a very different sense, and â´, for example, can reverse the meaning of verbs of motion: /gam 'go', â´ /gam 'come'. Two preverbs may be used together with the verb, as in the last example above, saptá svásâro abhí sám navante 'seven sisters implore together' (47).

    ácha   'towards'
    áti   'beyond, over'
    ádhi   'above, upon'
    ánu   'after, along'
    antár   'between' (Latin inter)
    ápa   'away' (Greek apo)
    ápi   'on' (Greek epi)
    abhí   'towards, against'
    áva   'down'
    â´   (intensifies or reverses meaning)
    út   'up'
    úpa   'up to' (Greek upo)
    ní   'down, into' (related to English 'nether')
    nís   'out'
    párâ   'away'
    pári   'around' (Greek peri)
    prá   'forth' (Greek pro, Latin pro)
    práti   'against, in return' (Homeric proti)
    ví   'apart, out'
    sám   'with, together'

Preverbs with verbs in subordinate clauses (which are therefore accented) combine if the preverb immediately precedes the verb, and similarly combine with active and middle present participles. The preverbs then lose their accent, as in the examples in the lesson text: ni-veçáyan, pra-suván, pra-câ´kaçat, and the forms â-prnántas and ut-cárantam from examples in section 7: âprnánto antáriksâ 'filling the atmospheres' (36), páçyema nú sû´ryam uccárantam 'now we would see the sun rising' (33).

10. Simple nominal compounds.

Early Sanskrit combines pairs of nouns, a noun and an adjective, or a nominal form with a prefix, to form simple compounded words, usually singly accented, very much as English does: tea-pot, black-bird, in-appropriate. Many of these, as in English, become established as words in their own right, like the adjective dhrtá-vrata 'firm-command(ed)' in verse 4 of the lesson text, or the noun su-matí 'good-opinion' from the first lesson. A large number of the compounds in the Rigveda however occur once only in the text, like brhát-sumna 'lofty-favour(ed)' in verse 6 of the lesson text, which is a familiar feature of sophisticated poetry.

Some compounds of two nouns, like prájâ´-pati 'creature-lord' in the lesson text, have an internal grammatical relationship, here 'lord of creatures', that can be determined by common sense, or by observing the usage. The same applies in English. A tree-top, for example, is the top of a tree, but a tree-house is used to mean a house in a tree, and a tree-surgeon is a surgeon for a tree. The Rigveda constructs compounds in a similar manner. The adjectival compound áçva-prstha 'horse-back(ed)', which occurs in a simile at VIII, 26, 24, means 'on the back of a horse'; the god of wind is invited to come to men as if on horseback. But a parallel animal + body part formation, mayû´ra-roman 'peacock-hair(ed)' at III, 45, 1, means 'with the hair of a peacock'; in this passage the compound itself constitutes the metaphor. The meaning is usually clear from the elements making up the word, and the context.

Compounding was to become, over time, enormously complex and artificial in the later language, and is one of the notable features of Classical Sanskrit. Compounds of more than two elements are rare in the Rigveda, as in English, but in Classical Sanskrit compounds of as many as 30 elements are prized, and the rules laid down for their analysis are complicated. Dr. Seuss can serve to illustrate how such compounds are built up (quoted by Tom McArthur in his article on compounds in The Oxford Companion to the English Language 1992; I have supplied the hyphens for clarity): "When tweetle-beetles fight, it's called a tweetle-beetle-battle. And when they battle in a puddle, it's a tweetle-beetle-puddle-battle. AND when tweetle-beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a tweetle-beetle-puddle-paddle-battle..." (from Fox in Socks 1960). This multi-element compounding is a commonplace of the later language. It is however unknown to the Rigveda, where the compounds are similar in style and frequency to those found in Homer.