Feb 8, 2015 - Feb 15, 2015

हरिः ॐ | नमो नमः |

Today we had our first class in the newly constructed Vrindavan Ashram, in Cranbury. In our classroom, Govinda, we all assembled seated on the floor, each student with a lap desk in front of them. It was a new experience, and the class easily adapted to the new style.

After opening prayers and singing the theme song of the year, we started our study of sanskrit. We first reviewed all the concepts that we had studied this year, as we were meeting after a long break. We then moved on to a new topic - relationships between nouns :)

Topic:

षष्ठी विभक्तिः  - Genitive or Possessive Case

Genitive case is used to express a relationship between two nouns. Most commonly the possessive relationship is expressed using this case, and hence the commonly referred to as possessive case. However genitive case is not limited to just possessive relationships. In English, the preposition 'of' or the apostrophe character is used to indicate genitive case. Here are some examples:

the son of Shiva,  or, Shiva's son

the wife of Rama,  or, Rama's wife

the capital of India, or, India's capital

the branches of the tree, tree's branches

the color of the Crow, or, Crow's color

Given the fact that the order of the words in a sentence does not alter the meaning of the sentence in sanskrit, this relationship gets expressed through a specific ending to the root word. 

Let us look at how the ending is modified for the various genders that we have learned in the past.

Gender	Nominative Case	Genitive Case
पुल्लिङ्गः	रामः	रामस्य
स्त्रीलिङ्गः	सीता	सीतायाः
स्त्रीलिङ्गः	देवी	देव्याः
नपुंसकलिङ्गः	वनम्	वनस्य

Here are some examples:

1. शिवस्य  पुत्रः गणेशः मोदकं खादति |  Ganesha, the son of Shiva, eats a modakam.
2. रामस्य पत्नी सीता सुन्दरी अस्ति | Sita, the wife of Rama, is very beautiful.
3. पत्रिकायाः नाम चन्दमामा अस्ति | The name of the magazine is chandamama.
4. देवक्याः सुतः कृष्णः नवनीतम् चोरयति | Krishna, the son of Devaki, steals butter.
5. पुस्तकस्य मूल्यम् शतरूप्यकाणि  | The cost of the book is hundred rupees. 
6. काकस्य वर्णः कृष्णः | The color of the crow is black.

Note:
Remember that ShaShTi vibhakti is applied to the noun with reference to whom or which the relationship is expressed.

Feb 15, 2015:

We learned the genitive case of a few pronouns, in singular number.

Pronoun	Nominative Case	Genitive Case
I	अहम्	मम
You	त्वम्	तव
You (respectful) - masucline	भवान्	भवतः
You (respectful) - feminine	भवती	भवत्याः

Here are some sentences that we have encountered in the past using the genitive form of the pronouns - I and You:

• Q: भवतः नाम किम् ?   What is your name?  (To a boy or a man)
• A: मम नाम  < रामः > |  My name is < Rama >.
• Q: भवत्याः नाम किम् ? What is your name? (To a girl or a lady)
• A: मम नाम  < गौरी > | My name is < Gowri >.
• तव मातृभाषा का ?  What is your mother-tongue?
• मम मातृभाषा  < हिन्दी > |  My mother-tongue is < Hindi >.

Homework

Please review all the vocabulary words we learned today in sanskrit, and their meaning.

1. Write three sentences with a subject, object and a verb.  
2. Write five sentences using genitive case ending of nouns.
3. Write the complete subhaashitam - हस्तस्य  भूषणम्  दानम्  neatly, and underline the nouns in shashThI vibhakti.

We had an oral and written test on genitive case. The students needed more practice in writing sanskrit. Please practice to write in sanskrit to get better in writing.

We concluded with Prayers.
We shall meet again on March 1, 2015

ॐ  शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ||