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Ancient Sanskrit Online

Lesson 5

Karen Thomson and Jonathan Slocum

The fears of the poets of the Rigveda revolve around darkness, confinement (for which see the second verse of this lesson text) and human ills, all of which they strive to overcome by means of their holy songs. The lesson 4 text concluded with the wish that dawn's light may "shine misfortunes away", and this lesson text is addressed to another goddess of light, jyótismatîm áditim (I, 136, 3). The meaning of Aditi's name, á-diti, is debated. Elsewhere in the text it appears together with its opposite: caksâthe áditim dítim ca (V, 62, 8), perhaps 'you two see both freedom and limit', and at VII, 52, 1 as a plural adjective, áditayah syâma. Aditi, or the abstraction that she regularly personifies, can also represent everything that is good, even all existence: áditir dyaúr áditir antáriksam, áditir mâtâ´ sá pitâ´ sá putráh, víçve devâ´ áditih páñca jánâ, áditir jâtám áditir jánitvam 'Aditi is the heaven, Aditi is the atmosphere, Aditi is mother, father, son; Aditi is all the gods, the five peoples, the born and the yet to be born' (I, 89, 10).

Reading and Textual Analysis

The lesson text is from VIII, 18 (638), a poem of 22 verses addressed to Aditi and her sons, the divine Adityas. The text is verses 4-12, and the metre is usnih, three-line verses of 8, 8, and 12 syllables. The name Aditya is a derivative of Aditi, a patronymic formed according to the pattern described in the last lesson (17.1; the initial A is long). These heavenly princes are ásvapnajo animisâ´ ádabdhâh (II, 27, 9) 'unsleeping, unblinking, undeceived', qualities that well equip them to watch over and protect mortals: paksâ´ váyo yáthopári, ví asmé çárma yachata (VIII, 47, 2) 'as birds their wings overhead, stretch out shelter for us'.

devébhir devi adite
áristabharman â´ gahi
smát sûríbhih purupriye suçármabhih

té hí putrâ´so áditer
vidúr dvésâmsi yótave
amhóç cid urucákrayo anehásah

áditir no dívâ paçúm
áditir náktam ádvayâh
áditih pâtu ámhasah sadâ´vrdhâ

utá syâ´ no dívâ matír
áditir ûtiyâ´ gamat
sâ´ çámtâti máyas karad ápa srídhah

utá tyâ´ daívyâ bhisájâ
çám nah karato açvínâ
yuyuyâ´tâm itó rápo ápa srídhah

çám agnír agníbhih karac
chám nas tapatu sû´riyah
çám vâ´to vâtu arapâ´ ápa srídhah

ápâ´mîvâm ápa srídham
ápa sedhata durmatím
â´dityâso yuyótanâ no ámhasah

yuyótâ çárum asmád â´m
â´dityâsa utâ´matim
r´dhag dvésah krnuta viçvavedasah

tát sú nah çárma yachata
â´dityâ yán múmocati
énasvantam cid énasah sudânavah

Lesson Text

devébhir devi adite
áristabharman â´ gahi
smát sûríbhih purupriye suçármabhih

té hí putrâ´so áditer
vidúr dvésâmsi yótave
amhóç cid urucákrayo anehásah

áditir no dívâ paçúm
áditir náktam ádvayâh
áditih pâtu ámhasah sadâ´vrdhâ

utá syâ´ no dívâ matír
áditir ûtiyâ´ gamat
sâ´ çámtâti máyas karad ápa srídhah

utá tyâ´ daívyâ bhisájâ
çám nah karato açvínâ
yuyuyâ´tâm itó rápo ápa srídhah

çám agnír agníbhih karac
chám nas tapatu sû´riyah
çám vâ´to vâtu arapâ´ ápa srídhah

ápâ´mîvâm ápa srídham
ápa sedhata durmatím
â´dityâso yuyótanâ no ámhasah

yuyótâ çárum asmád â´m
â´dityâsa utâ´matim
r´dhag dvésah krnuta viçvavedasah

tát sú nah çárma yachata
â´dityâ yán múmocati
énasvantam cid énasah sudânavah

Translation

With gods, O divine Aditi,
Unfailing in support, come hither;
Together with the tutelary princes, O beloved.
For they, the sons of Aditi,
Know to keep enmities away;
Freeing from all anxiety, the peerless ones.
Let Aditi by day, Aditi by night
Trustworthy, guard our cattle --
Aditi, ever beneficent, protect from trouble.
And that our thought by day:
Aditi will come with help.
She will make blessed happiness, banish misfortunes.
And those divine healers,
The two horsemen, will bless us,
Let them keep sickness from here, keep away misfortunes.
Agni will bless with fires,
Let the sun warm a blessing for us;
Let the wholesome wind blow a blessing, blow away misfortunes.
Away affliction, away misfortune,
Drive envy far away.
O sons of Aditi, keep us from trouble.
Keep the arrow far from us,
Adityas, and lack of thought.
Set hatred on one side, all-knowing ones.
Extend it surely to us,
O liberal sons of Aditi,
The refuge freeing even the sinful man from sin.

Grammar

21. Prefixes a-, su- and dus-.

The name Aditi is characterised by the privative prefix a-, Greek a-, which, like English un- or in-, reverses the meaning of the noun or adjective, often a participle, that follows it: in-equality, un-forgiving. It can also be used to turn a noun into an adjective, like English -less: harm-less. Before vowels a- becomes an-. This lesson text contains a number of examples of this formation: an-ehás 'incomparable', á-dvayas 'unduplicitous', a-rapás 'without sickness, wholesome', á-mati 'lack of thought'.

Similar simple nominal compounds are formed with the prefixes su- 'good, well-' and dus- 'bad, ill-', which becomes dur- or dus- according to phonetic rules described in the Series Introduction. Compare Greek eu- in eu-phêmos, English euphemism, dus- in dus-menês 'ill-disposed', and Latin dif- in dif-ficilis, English difficult. The prefix su- has appeared a number of times in the lessons: su-mánas 'well-disposed' (the opposite of Greek dus-menês), su-pâní 'lovely-handed', and su-matí 'good thought, favour', and is found in this lesson text in su-çárman 'of good shelter, tutelary', and su-dâ´nu 'generous'. Occasionally the u is lengthened, as in sû-nárî, an epithet of dawn in the Lesson 4 text, and sú/sû´ also occurs as an independent particle, as in the last verse of this lesson. The opposite of sumatí, durmatí 'bad thought, envy' also occurs in this passage: ápa sedhata durmatím 'drive envy far away'. Such oppositions are frequently juxtaposed in the text, as in example 125 below.

22. Nouns in -man, -an and -van.

Another important class of abstract nouns, like those in -as discussed in the last lesson, are the neuter nouns in -man, which are similarly accented on the first syllable. A number of these have already been encountered: çárman 'refuge, shelter' in examples 11, 16, and in the last verse of the Lesson 2 text; dhárman 'support', also in the Lesson 2 text; kárman 'act, deed' in Lesson 3; and mánman 'thought' and bráhman 'prayer' in examples 51 and 53. sávîman 'bringing to life', found only in the locative sávîmani, also occurred in the Lesson 2 text. çárman 'refuge, shelter' appears once more, in a now familiar appeal to the gods, in the last verse of this lesson text: tát sú nah çárma yachata.

    Singular   Plural
Nom   bráhma   bráhmâni, bráhmâ, bráhma
Acc   bráhma   bráhmâni, bráhmâ, bráhma
Ins   bráhmanâ   bráhmabhis
Dat   bráhmane   bráhmabhyas
Abl   bráhmanas   bráhmabhyas
Gen   bráhmanas   bráhmanâm
Loc   bráhmani, bráhman   bráhmasu

The alternative locative singular form without ending, bráhman 'in prayer', is peculiar to this declension. As usual with neuter nouns dual forms are uncommon: the nominative/accusative would be bráhmanî.

The majority of masculine and feminine words ending in -man are compound adjectives formed from these abstract neuter nouns, as in the two examples in the first verse of this lesson text, feminine árista-bharman 'of unbroken support' (neuter bhárman 'support'), and masculine su-çárman 'of good shelter, tutelary'. Many are formed using the three prefixes discussed in the previous grammar section: su-kárman 'of good action', a-karmán, su-bráhman, á-brahman, su-çárman, su-mánman, dur-mánman. Compare the formation of su-mánas 'well-disposed' from neuter mánas 'understanding', described in the last lesson (16.1). As with sumánas, the declension of the masculine and feminine forms differs from the neuter singular and plural only in the nominative, accusative, and vocative (the vocative neuter does not occur):

Masculine/Feminine   Singular   Dual   Plural
Nom   sukármâ   sukármânâ   sukármânas
Acc   sukármânam   sukármânâ   sukármanas
Voc   súkarman   súkarmânâ   súkarmânas

There are also a few uncompounded masculine stems in -man, with accent on the suffix: brahmán 'devout man', jarimán 'old age', and the two related nouns âtmán 'breath' and tmán 'nature, self'.

There are many fewer stems in -an, but one important one, râ´jan 'king'. The endings are the same as the masculine -man endings, except that there is syncopation of the vowel of the suffix in some cases: the written forms of the instrumental, dative, ablative and genitive singular are râ´jñâ, râ´jñe, and râ´jñas, and the accusative and genitive plural râ´jñas and râ´jñâm. This sycopation is also sometimes found in masculine stems in -man; the dative singular of jarimán for example is jarimné.

The suffix -van is most frequently used to form masculine compound adjectives, like á-râvan 'not granting', deva-yâ´van 'going to the gods', puro-yâ´van 'going in front', rtâ´-van 'holy', maghá-van 'gracious' (the noun maghá 'gift' has a sense of reciprocity, 'gift in return'). There are also a few nominal forms, like ádhvan 'way', átharvan 'priest', sátvan 'warrior' and grâ´van 'chief singer, cantor' (see the Series Introduction for the indological translation of this word). When preceded by a vowel, syncopation of the vowel of the suffix may again take place: the accusative plural of ádh-van is ádhvanas, but of grâ´-van grâ´vnas. The word maghávan is irregular, contracting -á-van- to -ón-: nominative singular maghávâ, genitive maghónas. The feminine ending corresponding to masculine -van is is -varî, as in the vocative plural r´tâvarîs addressed to the streams in the Lesson 3 text. The feminine of maghávan is maghónî.

23. The verb: primary and secondary endings.

At the end of Lesson 1 a table was given to show the usual personal endings of the present tense. The same set of endings is used elsewhere. They are attached to derivative conjugations, like causatives (see Lesson 7), and are also the personal endings of the future tense, which is of rare occurrence in the Rigveda. These endings are traditionally known as 'primary'.

There is another important set of personal endings, known as the 'secondary' endings. They are in fact older than the so-called primary endings, and occur in many parts of the Rigvedic verb. These endings are given in tabular form below.

        Active           Middle    
    Singular   Dual   Plural   Singular   Dual   Plural
1   -am   -va   -ma   -i (-e)   -vahi   -mahi
2   -s   -tam   -ta, -tana   -thâs   -âthâm   -dhvam
3   -t   -tâm   -an, -ur   -ta   -âtâm   -anta, -ata

We have already encountered a tense that uses these endings. Compare the table given for the forms of the imperfect in the last lesson (section 18). The secondary endings are also used by the aorist, the other past tense characterised by the prefixed augment a-. In addition they form the usual personal endings of the injunctive and optative moods.

24. The optative mood.

The optative, the mood of wishing, often appears alongside verbs in the imperative and subjunctive moods, as in this lesson text. It adds yâ´ or î to the verbal stem, and then the secondary endings, as given above. In thematic [I] verbs, where the stem already has a connecting -a-, this -a- combines with -î- to form -e-, as in the 1st person plural páçy-e-ma, from /paç, páçyati 'see', in example 139 below.

The optative occurs less frequently than the imperative and the subjunctive, although forms of the verb 'be' are regularly found, in particular syâ´ma 'may we be', as in the first line of the first lesson text. Middle forms, with the exception again of the first person plural, an example of which occurred in the last lesson text, gamemahi 'may we go', are uncommon.

    Singular   Dual   Plural
1   syâ´m   [syâ´va]   syâ´ma
2   syâ´s   syâ´tam   syâ´ta
3   syâ´t   syâ´tâm   syúr

The optative can be formed in more than one system, but all the examples below are from the Present System.

25. Numerals.

Ways of counting are ancient, and provide clear evidence of the relationships between languages. In Sanskrit éka 'one' was originally a demonstrative pronoun (see below) but numbers 2 to 10 and 100, dvá, trí, catúr, páñca, sás, saptá, astâ´, náva, dáça, and çatám (Latin centum), have a very familiar appearance. The word usually translated 1000, sahásra, in origin simply means 'a great number'.

éka 'one' follows the pronominal declension described in section 11, declining like yá except in the nominative/accusative singular neuter ékam, as in the first example below. Confirming its pronominal nature, it also occurs in the plural, with the meaning 'some', as in the second example.

dvá 'two' (duo, Latin duo, German zwei), like Greek duo inflects regularly as a dual adjective. The adjective ádvayas 'unduplicitous' in the lesson text is a derivative of dvá, with the privative prefix a-. dvá becomes dvi- in compounds like dvi-pád 'two-footed' in example 126 in section 22, and dvi-jánman 'of double birth', an epithet of Agni.

trí 'three' declines in the plural. In its masculine and neuter forms it follows the declension of çúci given in section 3, but it has a different feminine form, already encountered in Lesson 2, tisr´, which declines like svásr (see section 8.2) with the exception of the nominative and accusative tisrás.

The declension of catúr 'four' is irregular. The nominative masculine is catvâ´ras (compare Latin quattuor, French quatre), and like trí it has a different feminine stem, catasr´. Numbers beyond four do not distinguish gender, and usually have no ending in the nominative and accusative.