May 18, 2014

हरिः ॐ  Hari OM.
We reviewed all the vibhakti forms for the shabda-s - raama, sitaa and vanam, that we have covered over the past few months. We have been focussing only on eka vacanam or singular number, to first understand the concept and correct usage.

Here is a summary of the declensions that we have learned, for the three genders:

विभक्तिः  Case	प्रातिपदिकम्  राम	प्रातिपदिकम्  सीता	प्रातिपदिकम्  वन
प्रथमा Nominative	रामः	सीता	वनम्
द्वितीया Accusative	रामम्	सीताम्	वनम्
तृतीया Instrumental	रामेण	सीतया	वनेन
चतुर्थी Dative	रामाय	सीतायै	वनाय
पञ्चमी Ablative	रामात्	सीतायाः	वनात्
षष्ठी Genitive	रामस्य	सीतायाः	वनस्य
सप्तमी	रामे	सीतायाम्	वने

We practiced translating few English sentences, applying our vibhakti knowledge.

[English] The horse eats the grass.
[संस्कृतम्] अश्वः तृणं खादति |
The kids were fascinated by the fact that changing the order of the sentence to
 तृणं अश्वः खादति |  does not mean "The grass eats the horse." What a relief!

[English]  I write a shloka on the white board with a marker.
[संस्कृतम्] अहम्  श्वेतफलके अङ्कन्या श्लोकं लिखामि |

We shall be attempting more translations in the next few classes, please review and memorize the vibhakti forms.

We then moved on to the last missing piece in the vibhakti puzzle:
संबोधना प्रथमा , or the vocative case.

In sanskrit, there is a special way to invoke or call out to someone, known as Vocative case in English. The dual and plural forms of vocative case are the same as prathamA vibhakti or nominative case for the shabda-s we are working on, however just the singluar form is specialized. Usually, as part of invocation, हे, or, रे  would be added. An exclamation mark added when translated in English.

Let us understand how to call out the names for the shabda-s that we have been working with so far, along with iikaaranta strIlinga shabda:

Hey Rama!  हे राम |
Hey SitA!  हे सीते |
Oh flower! हे पुष्प |
Hey Saraswati!  हे सरस्वति | Please note that the long I has been changed to short i

We then analyzed a shloka that we are quite familiar with, for examples of vocative case.

सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम्  वरदे कामरूपिणि |
विद्यारम्भम् करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु मे सदा |
Hey Saraswati! (सरस्वति) Giver of boons! (वरदे) Fulfiller of desires! (कामरूपिणि)
Salutations to you. (नमः तुभ्यम् )
I am going to commence my studies. (विद्यारम्भं  करिष्यामि  - implied अहम् )
May success be mine (मम सिद्धिः भवतु ), always! (सदा)

We also discussed few other shloka-s from Gita and Mukunda maalaa for applications of vocative case.

Here are few more examples:

Respected madam! आर्ये
Respected sir! आर्य
Hey mighty armed! महाबाहो
Hey, Conqueror of wealth!  धनञ्जय
Hey Lord of Parvati! हे पार्वतीपते
Hey Guru! हे गुरो
Hey Mom! हे अम्ब

We reviewed the examples given in Abhyaasapustakam for sambodhana prathama usage.

With that we concluded our session.
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः |