Wednesday, March 18, 2015

March 1, 2015 - March 15, 2015

हरिः ॐ | नमो नमः |

After opening prayers and the theme song of the year, we started our study of sanskrit. After reviewing genitive case, we moved on to the next topic.

 सप्तमी  विभक्तिः - Locative Case:

A noun is declined in locative case, when it is used to express relative location in space or time. When constructing sentences the place associated with the action/verb, or, the time associated with the action/verb shall be expressed in locative case.

In English the prepositions typically used to express location and time would be " in, on, and, at"

Ex: 
The Lion lives in the forest.
The book is on the table.
The sanskrit class starts at 11 AM.

As with other vibhakti-s, the ending of the noun is modified in sanskrit to indicate locative case.

Spatial location

We first reviewed vocabulary words that indicate relative position: अत्र, तत्र, एकत्र, अन्यत्र, सर्वत्र, कुत्र.
We practiced answering questions using these words. These are indeclinables, and hence their form does not change with gender or number.

Then we studied how the nouns in all three genders would be modified to express location, in singular form.

GenderNominative CaseGenitive Case
पुल्लिङ्गः   रामः      रामे  
स्त्रीलिङ्गः     सीता सीतायाम्    
स्त्रीलिङ्गः  देवी देव्याम्  
नपुंसकलिङ्गः वनम्  वने 

We practiced constructing sentences adding location.
  1. सिंहः वने वसति |
  2. पुस्तकानि  स्यूते  सन्ति |
  3. पुस्तकम् उत्पीठिकायाम् अस्ति |
  4. बालकः नद्यां तरति |
We learned few new words that describe town, state, country, continent, etc. and practiced using those in saptamI vibhakti. The question word to ask "in what" in samskrutam is कस्मिन्.

Chronological location

We reviewed how to tell time in the clock in sanskrit.
Please click here to review cardinal numbers 1 - 20.
Then click here to review time.

After a quick review students answered time related questions, describing when an event or action happened.

Q: भवान् कदा सम्स्कृतगृहपाठम् करोति ?
A:  अहं शनिवासरे सायंकाले  अष्टवादने सम्स्कृतगृहपाठम् करोमि |
Q: भवान्  कदा स्नानं करोति ?
A: अहं प्रातःकाले सार्ध-सप्तवादने  स्नानं करोमि |
Q: संस्कृतकक्ष्या कदा आरभते ?
A: संस्कृतकक्ष्या  एकादशवादने आरभते |

The kids wanted to understand how to describe AM, PM in sanskrit. This lead to the discussion of how the day is divided into segments based on the relative position of sun. The time within a day is expressed relative to sunrise / dawn, mid-day, sunset / dusk, and, midnight. "At 8AM" would hence be stated as प्रातः काले अष्टवादने, and at 8PM would be सायंकाले अष्टवादने.

Please review the vocabulary words learned as part of these lessons.

Reading & Comprehension

We analyzed the following shloka that is chanted in the morning after waking up, and identified all the locative case endings.

कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः  करमध्ये सरस्वती |
करमूले तु गोविन्दः   प्रभाते करदर्शनम्  ||

Goddess Lakshmi resides in the tip of the hand, or,  fingers. Goddess Saraswati resides in the middle of the hand, or in the palm. Lord Vishnu resides in the base of the hand, or the wrist. (Some variations of this shloka have sthitaa gaurI, instead of tu govindaH). In the early morning, one should look at one's hand.

Though this is the literal translation, the verse suggests that, one's destiny is in one's own hands. In order to earn money, one has to work with the hands, in order to gain knowledge, one has to study, and in order to stay strong, one has to actively perform one's duties. God has given us hands, thus blessing us with wealth, knowledge, and health.

When we rise in the morning, chanting this shloka reminds us that our actions alone shape our destiny; thus inspires us to do our best!

Homework

1. Find a shloka that has saptamI vibhakti ending words.
2. Write 5 sentences each using a subject, verb and a noun declined in saptamI vibhakti.
3. Review the vocabulary words. There will be a quiz in the next class.


We concluded with Prayers.
We shall meet again on March 22nd.

ॐ  शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ||