Sanskrit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sanskrit ( संस्कृत )

Spoken in

India
speaker as mother tongue (2001: 14,135)

only as a second language (1961: 190,000)

Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in India (one of 22 recognized national languages)
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

sa

ISO 639 -2

san

ISO 639-3

san

The word "Sanskrit" in the nominative singular in Devanagari - writing ; The direction of writing and reading is from left to right

Sanskrit (own name संस्कृत saṃskṛta, lit. “composed, decorated, formed”) describes the different varieties of ancient Indian . The oldest form is the language of the Vedas , a collection of religious oral traditions in Hinduism . Their emergence or consolidation is estimated to 1500 BC. Chr. Dated. Classical Sanskrit was introduced around 400 BC. Codified by the grammar of the Pāṇini .

Often - especially in the English-speaking world - Sanskrit is used imprecisely for the unprocessed, orally transmitted Vedic language as a whole. Sanskrit is the most important language in Hinduism and was the language in the entire South Asian region. Sanskrit spread like Buddhism and Hinduism in Central Asia , Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia and became one of the most important languages ​​of culture and rulership. Sanskrit is the classical language of the Brahmins .

That around 1200 BC The usual Vedic language differs from classical Sanskrit, however. Sanskrit has been written mainly in Devanagari script for several centuries , but occasionally also in local scripts. (The first printed work in Sanskrit appeared in Bengali script .) Modern Sanskrit, which according to the census of some Indians is given as the mother tongue , is still the sacred language of the Hindus , as all religious scriptures from the Vedas and Upanishads to the Bhagavad -Gita were written in Sanskrit and are often recited that way. It is also still essential for religious rituals such as church services, weddings and funeral rituals.

Examples of loan words in German that can be traced back to Sanskrit, even if they were borrowed at a later date, are: Aryans , Ashram , Avatar , Bhagwan , Chakra , Guru , jungle , lacquer , ginger , orange , kajal , karma , mandala , Mantra , musk , nirvana , swastika , tantra , yoga .

Importance and distribution

For South Asia, Sanskrit plays a similar role as Latin does for Europe or Hebrew or Aramaic for today's or ancient Jews . Numerous traditional religious, philosophical and scientific texts are written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit already played the role of a special language in ancient India. Sanskrit is in contrast to the popular Prakrit , a group of Central Indian spoken dialects, which also includes Pali . Although many Buddhist texts were later written in Sanskrit, Siddharta Gautama itself is said to have preferred a more popular language variant such as Pali or Ardhamagadhi .

In the 2011 Indian census, about 25,000 people gave Sanskrit as their mother tongue . Current efforts are aimed at reviving Sanskrit itself as Living Sanskrit , also by developing new words for modern objects and by motivating young people to communicate in this language. There are newspapers and radio broadcasts in Sanskrit. Most secondary schools in modern India (especially where the state language Hindi is spoken) teaches Sanskrit as the third language after Hindi and English.

In the context of Hindu nationalism, there are tendencies to replace the terms of Arabic and Persian origin in Hindi with Sanskrit terms and thus to “cleanse” the language of foreign influences. This development is still ongoing, so that the lexical differences between Urdu and Hindi at the level of the upscale written language are increasing.

history

The Vedic language is the oldest form of the Indo-Aryan languages ; Traces of older Indo-Aryan can only be found in traditions from the Mitanni empire in Anatolia . Modern languages ​​such as Hindi - Urdu , Bengali , Marathi , Kashmiri , Punjabi , Nepalese and Romani emerged from it . Vedic Sanskrit (Vedic) is an archaic form of Sanskrit in which the four sacred Vedas of the Hindus were written. Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit in much the same way that Homeric Greek differs from Classical Greek. Both Sanskrit versions contain a large number of borrowings from the Dravidian languages . Their main differences include:

In contrast to Prakrit, Sanskrit was valued as the pure and holy language and was always a high or literary language for religious and scientific topics. Many Sanskrit texts were passed down orally before they were written down in later centuries (often not until the Middle Ages). This also applies to the oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar from Panini , which as early as the 5th and 4th centuries BC in his work Ashtadhyayi precisely described the Sanskrit language in almost 4,000 rules. Using his ingenious system, he developed precise concepts for describing phonemes, morphemes and roots, which only appeared in analog form in Western linguistics around 2500 years later.

Relationship with other languages

The Indo-Aryan languages ​​of the Indo-European language family have a common origin with almost all modern European languages, but also with the classical languages ​​such as Latin and Persian . The relationship can be illustrated, for example, with the words for mother and father: mātṛ and pitṛ in Sanskrit (nominative: mātā and pitā ); mater and pater in Latin and mātar and pitar in old Iranian. Like the Latin iugum , the term yoga goes back to the common root * yewg (German yoke ).

The Latin word deus (god) (not the ancient Greek theos , but the god's name Zeus ) also corresponds to the Sanskrit word deva (god). Latin “esse” (to be) goes back to the same Indo-European root as the Indian as (to be); the perfect fuisse as the English be and the German bin on the same as Sanskrit bhu (also "to be"). More about this can be found under Indo-European word roots .

The similar basic structure of the grammar is also noteworthy, for example gender , function of the cases (cases), tenses (time structure), modes : For example, the ending of the we-form in the simple present is in Sanskrit -mah , in Latin -mus , im Ancient Greek -men , in Old High German -mes . In Sanskrit, all eight cases that were reconstructed for the Indo-European original language have been preserved (see also the section on grammar ).

The similarities between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit played an important role in the development of Indo-European studies ; It was only when Europeans came to India as part of colonization and began to translate Indian literature that the striking similarity of the languages ​​was discovered.

Words from other languages ​​have already flowed into Vedic. In the Rigveda about four percent of the words are of non-Indo-Aryan origin. These are terms from the Austro-Asian and Dravidian languages , but also from the Sinotibetan languages .

Phonology and Script

Classical Sanskrit has 48 phonemes , Vedic Sanskrit has 49. Vedic and Classical Sanskrit use the scriptura continua . Sanskrit is based on the phonemic as a spelling or grammar principle due to Sandhis , i.e. i.e. the spelling depends on the sound. In contrast, the orthography of modern Indo-Aryan languages such as e.g. B. the German language on the morphological or stem principle.

Sanskrit text written in different scripts: "May Shiva bless whoever pleases the language of the gods." ( Kalidasa ).

The phonemes are described here in their traditional order: vowels , obstruents ( plosives and nasals arranged according to the place of articulation , from back to front) and finally approximants and sibilants .

The transliteration takes place in the two systems IAST ( International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ) and ITRANS ( Indian Languages ​​Transliteration ).

Vowels

The grammatical and phonological terms in Sanskrit do not always coincide with those we are familiar with. The concept of the 16 Matrika ( मातृका mātṛkā "(divine) mothers") or Shakti ( शक्ति "(divine) powers") does not entirely correspond to our conception of a vowel, since here the sounds for ṛ , ṝ and ḷ appear and except The vowel phonemes also include Anusvara ( ṁ ) and Visarga ( ḥ ).

Traditionally, the vowel phonemes are arranged according to the place of articulation and length, with every short ( ह्रस्व hrasva "short") sound having a long ( दीर्घ dīrgha "long") equivalent.

The five places of articulation or mouth positions distinguished in Sanskrit are:

This distinction according to mouth positions is also used in the categorization of the 25 obstruents. In the case of a vowel, the sound is created by approaching the place of articulation, in the case of the consonant by forming a lock at the place of articulation.

The traditional arrangement of the Sanskrit vowel sounds by mouth position and length is as follows:

group Articulation
location mouth position 		short
hrasva 		long
dīrgha
Devanagari IAST Devanagari IAST
easy velar ( kanthya ) अ a आ -
palatal ( talavya ) इ i ई ī
labial ( oshthya ) उ u ऊ ū
consonantic retroflex ( murdhanya ) ऋ ṛ ॠ ṝ
dental ( dantya ) ऌ ḷ ॡ ḹ
composed velar + palatal
( कण्ठतालव्य kaṇṭhatālavya ) 		ए e ऐ ai
velar + labial
( कण्ठोष्ठ्य kaṇṭhoṣṭhya ) 		ओ O औ ouch

The long vowels are pronounced about twice as long as their short counterparts, the length of which corresponds to a prosodic unit, a matra ( मात्रा mātrā "measure"). In addition, for most vowels there is a third quantity level 'very long' ( प्लुत pluta "long drawn"), which is used, for example, in the vocative and is pronounced with three mātrā length. In the script, the excess length is noted by the number 3 after it, for example ka with an excessively long a-vowel appears in the romanization as ka3 and in Devanagari as क ३ .

The sound of the ṝ arises when the tongue is lifted back when pronouncing an elongated i-vowel like when pronouncing a rolled r's. If a subsequent vowel requires lowering the tongue position, an implied i-sound is created, which is why in the transcription ṛ is usually represented by “ri”, for example in the transcription of कृष्ण ( kṛṣṇa ) as Krishna . In the same way, the sound of the ḹ is created by moving the tip of the tongue from the pronunciation of an elongated i-sound to the l-position, whereby the long form of the ḷ appears practically nowhere and was apparently added in analogy to the other vowels to create a symmetry of to complete long and short vowels.

The Sanskrit grammarians also classify e and o as compound, i.e. as diphthongs , but they are pronounced as monophthongs . The (relatively) short ( hrasva ) e then corresponds to the long ( dirgha ) ai and the o to the au .

The following table shows the 14 vowel phonemes in the lexicographical order in full form, half form, combination with the consonant with प (p), transcription and phonetic example:

Vowels ( Shakti )
Devanāgarī Pronunciation ( IPA ) Transcription length Phonetic example
Full form Half shape combination IAST ITRANS
अ प / ⁠ ə ⁠ / a a short like e in old e
आ ा पा / ⁠ ɑː ⁠ / - A. long as a in V a ter
इ ि पि / ⁠ i ⁠ / i i short as i in s i nts
ई ी पी / ⁠ iː ⁠ / ī I. long as ie in Sp ie l
उ ु पु / ⁠ u ⁠ / u u short as u in H u nd
ऊ ू पू / ⁠ uː ⁠ / ū U long like u in t u n
ऋ ृ पृ / ⁠ ɻ ⁠ / ṛ RRi short roughly like ir in American English b ir d
ॠ ॄ पॄ / ⁠ ɻː ⁠ / ṝ RRI long
ऌ ॢ पॢ / ⁠ ɭ ⁠ / ḷ LLi short roughly like l in English hand l e
ॡ ॣ पॣ / ⁠ ɭː ⁠ / ḹ LLI long
ए े पे / ⁠ eː ⁠ / e e long like e in d e m
ऐ ै पै / ⁠ əi ⁠ / or / ⁠ ai ⁠ / ai ai long as ei in h ei lig
ओ ो पो / ⁠ οː ⁠ / O O long as o in r o t
औ ौ पौ / ⁠ əu ⁠ / or / ⁠ au ⁠ / ouch ouch long as au in H au s

Anusvara and Visarga are also counted among the Shakti . In Sanskrit all vowels can be nasalized . The anusvara (IAST ṃ , Devanagari ं ) indicates either the nasalization of the preceding vowel or a nasal homorganous to the following consonant . The Visarga (IAST ḥ , Devanagari ः ) modifies a preceding vowel by adding a slight echo during pronunciation, for example aḥ could be realized as [ ɐhᵄ ].

The omission of the implicit vowel is used in Devanagari by the diacritical mark Virama (्). A consonants without vowels or Virama means that it the short vowel schwa ( / ⁠ ə ⁠ / ) follows.

Consonants

The following table shows the traditional arrangement of the 25 Sanskrit consonants, which are obstruents , in which the flow of breath is narrowed or blocked during articulation. In Sanskrit, these are called sparsha ( स्पर्श sparśa "touching"), because when they are articulated, the articulator and the place of articulation come into contact .

As with the vowels, the obstruents are divided into five groups (Sanskrit वर्ग varga ) according to the position of the mouth . Each group that appears here as a table line is named according to the name of the first consonant, the consonants of the first line therefore form the ka-varga . The consonants of the third group ( ṭa-varga ) are marked in the IAST transcription by a point placed under the respective letter, which distinguishes them from the consonants of the fourth group ( ta-varga ).

The grouping in the columns depends on whether the consonant is voiced ( घोष ghoṣa ), unvoiced ( अघोष aghoṣa ) or nasal ( अनुनासिक anunāsika ). A distinction is also made between aspiration , i.e. between non-aspirated ( अल्पप्राण alpaprāṇa "little breath") and aspirated ( महाप्राण mahāprāṇa "much breath") pronunciation.

Obstruents
Articulation
location / mouth position 		voiceless ( aghoṣa ) voiced ( ghoṣa ) nasal
not aspirated
( alpaprāṇa ) 		aspirated
( mahāprāṇa ) 		not aspirated
( alpaprāṇa ) 		aspirated
( mahāprāṇa ) 		not aspirated
( alpaprāṇa )
velar ( kanthya ) क k ख kh ग g घ gh ङ ṅ
palatal ( talavya ) च c छ ch ज j झ jh ञ ñ
retroflex ( murdhanya ) ट ṭ ठ ṭh ड ḍ ढ ḍh ण ṇ
dental ( dantya ) त t थ th द d ध ie न n
labial ( oshthya ) प p फ ph ब b भ bh म m

The following table shows the eight Sanskrit sounds that are neither vocal ( shakti ) nor obstruents ( sparsha ), i.e. sonorants . They are divided into four approximants , which are called antahstha ( अन्तःस्थ antahastha "in the middle between [vowels and consonants]"), and four sibilants , which are called ushman ( ऊष्मन् ūṣman "hot, hissing steam"). The approximants are regarded as voiced ( ghoṣa ), the sibilants as voiceless ( aghoṣa ) and aspirated ( mahāprāṇa ). The last consonant h , which is actually not a sibilant, is also considered ushman , but is voiced and is classified with the sibilants.

Sonorants
palatal ( talavya ) retroflex ( murdhanya ) dental ( dantya ) labial ( oshthya )
Approximant य y र r ल l व v
Sibilant श ś ष ṣ स s ह h

The following table shows the consonants of Sanskrit both in full form and in half form, which appear in ligatures (see below), followed by transcription, pronunciation and pronunciation example.

Consonants
Devanāgarī Transcription Pronunciation ( IPA ) Phonetic example
Full form Half shape IAST ITRANS
क क् k k / ⁠ k ⁠ / German: k lar
ख ख् kh kh / ⁠ kʰ ⁠ / ≈Deutsch: k a
ग ग् G G / ⁠ g ⁠ / German: g roß
घ घ् gh gh / ⁠ gʰ ⁠ / ≈Deutsch: g erne
ङ ङ् ṅ ~ N / ⁠ ŋ ⁠ / German: Ri ng
च च् c ch / ⁠ c ⁠ / ≈Deutsch: Eng lish country
छ छ् ch chh / ⁠ cʰ ⁠ / ≈German: deu tsch
ज ज् j j / ⁠ ɟ ⁠ / ≈English: j oke
झ झ् century century / ⁠ ɟʰ ⁠ / ≈German: Dsch ungel
ञ ञ् ñ ~ n / ⁠ ɲ ⁠ / English: fi n ch
ट ट् ṭ T / ⁠ ʈ ⁠ / American-Eng: hur t ing
ठ ठ् ṭh Th / ⁠ ʈʰ ⁠ /
ड ड् ḍ D. / ⁠ ɖ ⁠ / American-Eng: mur d er
ढ ढ् ḍh Ie / ⁠ ɖʰ ⁠ /
ण ण् ṇ N / ⁠ ɳ ⁠ / American-English: hu n ter
त त् t t ≈Deutsch: T ransport
थ थ् th th / ⁠ t̪ʰ ⁠ / ≈German: T oma t e
द द् d d / ⁠ d̪ ⁠ / ≈Deutsch: d rei
ध ध् ie ie / ⁠ d̪ʰ ⁠ / ≈German: d unkel
न न् n n / ⁠ n ⁠ / ≈German: N ame
प प् p p / ⁠ p ⁠ / German: P latz
फ फ् ph ph / ⁠ pʰ ⁠ / ≈German: P ik
ब ब् b b / ⁠ b ⁠ / German: b lau
भ भ् bra bra / ⁠ bʰ ⁠ / ≈German: B us
म म् m m / ⁠ m ⁠ / German: m a
य य् y y / ⁠ j ⁠ / German: J ude
र र् r r / ⁠ ɻ ⁠ / American-Eng: tea r ing
ल ल् l l / ⁠ l ⁠ / German: l ieben
व व् v v / ⁠ ʋ ⁠ / ≈German: w as
श श् ś sh / ⁠ ɕ ⁠ / or / ⁠ ʃ ⁠ / German: Sch af
ष ष् ṣ Sh / ⁠ ʂ ⁠ /
स स् s s / ⁠ s ⁠ / German: wi ss en
ह ह् H H / ⁠ ɦ ⁠ / ≈German: h eim

Emphasis

Sanskrit itself is an accented language, whereas in the older Vedic syllables are emphasized by a so-called melodic or musical accent, i.e. That is, the stressed syllable is marked by an audibly different pitch ( modulation ). Vedic is therefore a moderate tonal language . Indian grammars define three tones ( svara ): udātta 'increased', anudātta 'not increased' and svarita . In transliteration, udātta is usually displayed with an acute (´) and anudātta with a grave accent (`). Svarita occurs only as a product of euphonic vowel combinations and is therefore much rarer than the other two tones. The tone accent has been lost in classical Sanskrit (and was only preserved in Vedic chants).

Lexicographical order

The lexicographical order of Sanskrit as it is used in the dictionaries corresponds to the order of the letters in the traditional tabular form of the 16 vowel Shakti and the consonant 25 consonantic Sparsha , if one reads line by line from left to right and from top to bottom. The order of the groups is:

Vowels ( Shakti ): a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ e ai o au ṁ ḥ
Obstruents ( Sparsha ): k kh g gh ṅ c ch g gh ñ ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ t th d dh n p ph b bh m
Approximants ( Antahstha ): y r l v
Sibilants ( Ushman ): ś ṣ s h

Sandhi

Sanskrit has a complex system of phonological rules called sandhi and samaas, which are also reproduced in the written language (except in so-called pada texts). Sandhi describes the changes that occur when combining phonemes, especially at word boundaries. These processes can be found in every spoken language, but in Sanskrit they are precisely regulated and codified.

Examples:

  • a + u → o (Kath o panishad)
  • o + i → avi
  • t + c → cc (Sa cc it)

The beginning of the Nala episode of the Mahabharata reads

āsīd rājā nalo nāma vīrasenasuto balī
upapanno guṇair iṣṭai rūpavān aśvakovidaḥ

(There was a king named Nala, mighty son of Virasena; gifted with coveted virtues, stately and adroit in dealing with horses)

Without Sandhi the text would be:

āsī t rājā nal aḥ nāma vīrasenasut aḥ balī
upapann aḥ guṇai ḥ iṣṭai ḥ rūpavān aśvakovidaḥ

Sandhi can create significant difficulties for beginners and inexperienced readers in reading Sanskrit texts. They also create ambiguities that good poets use to write poems that can be read in different and quite contradicting ways - depending on how the reader resolves the sandhi.

font

Devimahatmya in Sanskrit on palm leaves, Bihar or Nepal, 11th century

Sanskrit had no special script associated with it alone in its history. Ashoka used the Brahmi script for his column inscriptions (which were not written in Sanskrit, but in Prakrit dialects and other languages). At about the same time as the Brahmi script, the Kharoshthi script was also used. Later, around the fourth to eighth centuries AD, the Gupta script, derived from the Brahmi script, was predominantly in use. Around the 8th century, the Sharada script developed from the Gupta , which was in turn replaced by Devanagari from the 12th century through intermediate stages such as Siddham . In addition, numerous other scripts were written, e.g. B. Kannada in the south or in Bengali script in the north; these differ only in the shape of the signs and in the addition of individual signs to represent new sounds, but not in the basic principle of Devanagari.

Since the Middle Ages, and especially today, Devanāgarī ('the (script) used in the city of the gods') has been the most widespread and common script for Sanskrit. Occasionally, in areas of India where Devanagari is not in common use, texts can still be found in local scripts.

The writing came to India relatively late and was then only of minor importance, since knowledge was mostly conveyed orally and learned by heart. According to Thomas William Rhys Davids , the writing may have been brought to India by merchants from the Middle East . Sanskrit, which was used exclusively for sacred purposes, remained a purely oral language well into the classical period of India.

All Indian scripts used for Sanskrit are syllabary and are written from left to right. Like the European scripts (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic), they probably derive from the Phoenician script via Semitic intermediate stages and are not related to the East Asian script. However, some scholars suspect that the development of the Japanese kana , which are based on the form of Chinese characters, was stimulated by the knowledge of the Indian Siddham script among the Japanese Buddhists.

Since the 19th century there has also been a transliteration of Sanskrit in Latin transcription. The most common transcription is currently IAST ( International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ), the academic standard since 1912. Other transliteration systems have been developed to avoid the difficulties of displaying and printing the necessary special characters for Sanskrit, such as the earlier Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS , a lossless transliteration system that is particularly popular on the Internet.

In science, either Roman transcription or Devanāgarī is used for the transcription and reproduction of entire texts and longer excerpts . Individual names and individual words are usually reproduced in Latin transcriptions in texts written in European languages. For religious purposes, however, it is preferred to use the Devanagari script, sometimes together with glosses in Latin transcription.

grammar

Like German or Latin, Sanskrit is an inflectional language, but it has an even more extensive inflectional morphology than this: There are about 96 different forms in Sanskrit for each verb in the present tense, but only about 29 in Latin and only about eight in New High German. Many functions in the sentence are simply designated by suffixes (e.g. place, direction, origin, passive, cause, possibility form, wish, prohibition, ...).

(In the following the IAST transliteration scheme is used.)

Nouns

The declination of nouns in Sanskrit takes place after

  • three genera :
    masculine ( puṃliṅga , male), feminine ( strīliṅga , female), neuter ( napuṃsakaliṅga , neuter)
  • three numbers:
    singular ( ekavacana , singular), dual ( dvivacana , two-number), plural ( bahuvacana , plural)
  • eight cases :
    nominative ( prathamā ): panthāḥ “the path”, accusative ( dvitīyā ): panthānam “the path, on the path”, instrumental ( tṛtīyā ): pathā “through the path”, dative ( caturthī ): pathe “the path , for the path ”, ablative ( pañcamī ): pataḥ “ from the path ”, genitive ( ṣaṣṭhī ): pataḥ “ of the path ”, locative ( saptamī ): pathi “ on the path ”, vocative ( sambodhana ): panthaḥ! "O path!"

Article does not use Sanskrit as mandatory elements. However, the demonstrative pronoun “tad” and the indefinite pronoun “kimcit” are often optionally used as definite or indefinite articles.

The nouns in Sanskrit are divided into vowel and buccal (consonantic) stems.

Vowel stems

The vocal tribes include

  • Stems on a (masculine, neuter)
  • Tribes on ā (feminine)
  • Stems on i (masculine, feminine, neuter)
  • Tribes on ī (feminine)
  • Stems on u (masculine, feminine, neuter)
  • Tribes on ū (feminine)
  • Stems on diphthong ( ai , au , o ) (only three nouns after this declension: √rai “possession”, √nau “ship”, and √go “cow”).

The following table gives an overview of the declination patterns of the vowel stems.

a-stem - tribe i trunk ī tribe
√ kāma (m)
(love) 		√ rūpa (n)
(beauty) 		√ bāla (f)
(girl) 		√ agni (m)
(fire) 		√ vāri (n)
(water) 		√ mati (f)
(opinion) 		√ dhī (f)
(thought) 		√ nadī (f)
(river)
Singular Nominative kāma ḥ rūpa m bālā agni ḥ vāri mati ḥ dhī ḥ nadī
vocative kāma rūpa bāl e agn e vār [ i / e ] mat e dhī ḥ nad i
accusative kāma m rūpa m bālā m agni m vāri mati m dhi yam nad im
Instrumental kām ena rūp eṇa bāl ayā agni nā vāri ṇā mat yā dhi yā nad yā
dative kāmā ya rūpā ya bālā yai agn aye vāri ṇe mat [ aye / yai ] dhi [ ye / yai ] nad yai
ablative kāmā t rūpā t bālā yāḥ agn eḥ vāri ṇāḥ mat [ eḥ / yāḥ ] dhi [ yaḥ / yāḥ ] nad yāḥ
Genitive kāma sya rūpa sya bālā yāḥ agn eḥ vāri ṇāḥ mat [ eḥ / yāḥ ] dhi [ yaḥ / yāḥ ] nad yāḥ
locative kām e rūp e bālā yām agn au vāri ṇi mat [ au / yām ] dhi [ yi / yām ] nad yām
dual Nominative kām au rūp e bāl e agn ī vāri ṇī mat ī dhi yau nad yau
vocative kām au rūp e bāl e agn ī vāri ṇī mat ī dhi yau nad yau
accusative kām au rūp e bāl e agn ī vāri ṇī mat ī dhi yau nad yau
Instrumental kāmā bhyām rūpā bhyām bālā bhyām agni bhyām vāri bhyām mati bhyām dhī bhyām nadī bhyām
dative kāmā bhyām rūpā bhyām bālā bhyām agni bhyām vāri bhyām mati bhyām dhī bhyām nadī bhyām
ablative kāmā bhyām rūpā bhyām bālā bhyām agni bhyām vāri bhyām mati bhyām dhī bhyām nadī bhyām
Genitive kāma yoḥ rūpa yoḥ bāla yoḥ agn yoḥ vāri ṇoḥ mat yoḥ dhi yoḥ nadi yoḥ
locative kāma yoḥ rūpa yoḥ bāla yoḥ agn yoḥ vāri ṇoḥ mat yoḥ dhi yoḥ nadi yoḥ
Plural Nominative kāmā ḥ rūpā ṇi bālā ḥ agn ayaḥ vārī ṇi mat ayaḥ dhi yaḥ nad yaḥ
vocative kāmā ḥ rūpā ṇi bālā ḥ agn ayaḥ vārī ṇi mat ayaḥ dhi yaḥ nad yaḥ
accusative kāmā n rūpā ṇi bālā ḥ agn īn vārī ṇi mat īḥ dhi yaḥ nad īḥ
Instrumental kāma iḥ rūpa iḥ bālā bhiḥ agni bhiḥ vāri bhiḥ mati bhiḥ dhī bhiḥ nadī bhiḥ
dative kām ebhyaḥ rūp ebhyaḥ bālā bhyaḥ agni bhyaḥ vāri bhyaḥ mati bhyaḥ dhī bhyaḥ nadī bhyaḥ
ablative kām ebhyaḥ rūp ebhyaḥ bālā bhyaḥ agni bhyaḥ vāri bhyaḥ mati bhyaḥ dhī bhyaḥ nadī bhyaḥ
Genitive kāmā nām rūpā ṇām bālā nām agnī nām vārī ṇām matī nām dh [ iyām / īnām ] nadī nām
locative came eṣu rūp eṣu bālā su agni ṣu vāri ṣu mati ṣu dhī ṣu nadī ṣu
u trunk ū tribe Diphthong tribe
√ vāyu (m)
(wind) 		√ madhu (n)
(honey) 		√ dhenu (f)
(cow) 		√ bhū (f)
(earth) 		√ vadhū (f)
(woman) 		√ rai (f)
(possession) 		√ nau (f)
(ship) 		√ go (f)
(beef)
Singular Nominative vāyu ḥ madhu dhenu ḥ bhū ḥ vadhū ḥ rā ḥ nau ḥ gau ḥ
vocative vāy o madh [ u / o ] dhen o bhū ḥ vadh u rā ḥ nau ḥ gau ḥ
accusative vāyu m madhu dhenu m bra and much more vadhū m rāy am nāv am gā m
Instrumental vāyu nā madhu nā dhen vā bhu vā vadh vā rāy ā nāv ā gav ā
dative vāy ave madhu ne dhen ave bhu [ ve / vai ] vadh vai rāy e nāv e gav e
ablative vāy oḥ madhu nāḥ dhen [ oḥ / vāḥ ] bhu [ vaḥ / vāḥ ] vadh vāḥ rāy aḥ nāv aḥ go ḥ
Genitive vāy oḥ madhu nāḥ dhen [ oḥ / vāḥ ] bhu [ vaḥ / vāḥ ] vadh vāḥ rāy aḥ nāv aḥ go ḥ
locative vāy au madhu ni dhen [ au / vām ] bhu [ vi / vām ] vadh vām rāy i nāv i gav i
dual Nominative Vay ¾ madhu nī dhen ū bhu vau vadh vau rāy au nāv au gāv au
vocative Vay ¾ madhu nī dhen ū bhu vau vadh vau rāy au nāv au gāv au
accusative Vay ¾ madhu nī dhen ū bhu vau vadh vau rāy au nāv au gāv au
Instrumental vāyu bhyām madhu bhyām dhenu bhyām bhū bhyām vadhū bhyām rā bhyām nau bhyām go bhyām
dative vāyu bhyām madhu bhyām dhenu bhyām bhū bhyām vadhū bhyām rā bhyām nau bhyām go bhyām
ablative vāyu bhyām madhu bhyām dhenu bhyām bhū bhyām vadhū bhyām rā bhyām nau bhyām go bhyām
Genitive vāy voḥ madhu noḥ dhen voḥ bhu voḥ vadh voḥ rāy oḥ nāv oḥ gav oḥ
locative vāy voḥ madhu noḥ dhen voḥ bhu voḥ vadh voḥ rāy oḥ nāv oḥ gav oḥ
Plural Nominative vāy avaḥ madh ūni dhen avaḥ bhu vaḥ vadh vaḥ rāy aḥ nāv aḥ gāv aḥ
vocative vāy avaḥ madh ūni dhen avaḥ bhu vaḥ vadh vaḥ rāy aḥ nāv aḥ gāv aḥ
accusative vāy ūn madh ūni dhen ūḥ bhu vaḥ vadh ūḥ rāy aḥ nāv aḥ gā ḥ
Instrumental vāyu bhiḥ madhu bhiḥ dhenu bhiḥ bhū bhiḥ vadhū bhiḥ rā bhiḥ nau bhiḥ go bhiḥ
dative vāyu bhyaḥ madhu bhyaḥ dhenu bhyaḥ bhū bhyaḥ vadhū bhyaḥ rā bhyaḥ nau bhyaḥ go bhyaḥ
ablative vāyu bhyaḥ madhu bhyaḥ dhenu bhyaḥ bhū bhyaḥ vadhū bhyaḥ rā bhyaḥ nau bhyaḥ go bhyaḥ
Genitive vāy ūnām madh ūnām dhen ūnām bh [ uvām / ūnām ] vadhū nām rāy ām nāv ām gav ām
locative vāyu ṣu madhu ṣu dhenu ṣu bhū ṣu vadhū ṣu rā ṣu nau ṣu go ṣu

Buccal trunks

The nouns with buccal stems can be divided into

  • single-stem nouns which have the same stem in all cases. They include:
    • Root nouns are monosyllabic stems to which the case ending is attached directly
    • two-syllable stems on plosives or affricates
    • two or more syllable stems on -as / -is / -us
  • multi-stemmed nouns. They include tribes:
    • on - (a) nt
    • on - (a) n
    • on - (i) n
    • to -ar / -ṛ
    • on -iyaṁs / -iyas
    • to -vaṁs / -uṣ
    • to -añc

Compounds

The nominal composition is particularly characteristic of the later forms of language. As a rule, all the links except the last appear in an unflexed form. The different compound forms are Dvandva, Tatpurusha, Karmadharaya and Bahuvrihi. These Sanskrit terms are also used as technical terms in general linguistics.

The Dvandva (copulative compound) is a chain of nouns that would be connected by "and" in German. The gender is based on the final link, the number is the total number of objects identified. ācāryaśiṣyau means: teacher ( ācārya , nominative singular ācāryaḥ ) and student ( śiṣa , nominative singular śiṣaḥ , nominative dual śiṣau ). Since there are two people, the expression is dual. aśvagajabālanarā nṛtyanti Horses, elephants, boys and men dance. ( aśva horse, gaja elephant, bāla boy, nara man, nominative plural in the sandhi before n narā ). The dvandva has a special reputation in the Indian tradition; Krishna says in verse 10.33 of the Bhagavadgita “I am the A among the characters, the Dvandva among the compound words”.

The Tatpurusha (determinative compound, literally “his man”) correspond to the most common form of compound form in German: The front term is in a grammatically not explicitly designated “case” reference to the final term (which can also be an adjective or participle): Accusative ( grāmagata gone to the village), instrumental ( devadatta given by God), dative ( varṇasukha pleasant to the ear), ablative ( svargapatita fallen from heaven), genitive ( rājakanyā king's daughter), locative ( saṃgarānta death in battle).

Karmadharaya (appositional compounds) are Tatpurusha, in which the front link is in the same case as the main link. ( cauravījanaḥ thieves).

Bahuvrihi (exocentric compound words, literally "having a lot of rice (having)") denote a quality that a person has. They form adjectives that can occur in all three genders, regardless of the gender of the compositional members. In German these forms correspond to formations on -ig. ( Viṣṇurūpa , vishnu-shaped, in the form of Vishnu, disguised as Vishnu)

Pronouns

Similar to other Indo-European languages, Sanskrit also has peculiarities in the inflection of the pronouns compared to the inflection of the nouns. The main characteristics of Sanskrit pronominal inflection are as follows:

The form of the neuter ends in the nom./acc. Sg. Mostly on -d , in the absolute final according to the laws of [Sandhi] realized as -t ( did "that", "this"; id-am "this").

Dative, ablative and locative singular are in the forms of masculine and neuter nouns with the help of an insert sm formed (Dat. Sg. M./n. Tasmai Devaya "this god" Abl. Sg. M./n. Tasmāt devāt " of this God ", Lok. Sg. m./n. tasmin deve " in this God ").

Feminine form genitive, dative, ablative and locative singular with the help of an extension -sy (Gen. Sg. F. Tasyāh devyāh "this goddess", Dat. Sg. F. Tasyai devyai "this goddess", Oj. Sg. F. Tasyāh devyāh "from this goddess", Lok. Sg. f. tasyām devyām "in this goddess").

The genitive plural ends in -sām or -shām (e.g. teshām devānām "these gods").

Verbs

The conjugation of verbs in Sanskrit has the following categories:

  • Three genera verbs :
    active ( Parasmaipada ) (“he sees”), medium ( Atmanepada ) (“he sees himself / he is seen”) and passive (“he is seen”), which, however, is usually represented by the medium (also in impersonal form: "It should be gone" = polite form for "Go please!")
  • Present stem for present and past tense
  • Future stem for future tense
  • Aorist tribe for aorist
  • Perfect stem for perfect
  • Five modes :
    indicative , potentialis (optative) , imperative , precative and conditional .
    The precative is the optative in the aorist , whereby in this form the expressed wish is formulated more strongly than the optative present tense. In addition, there are remnants of a fourth mode of Injunktivs in the aorist, which Prohibitive called ( "do not go!"). In Vedic the injective had a much wider meaning.

Present tense system

The verbs of Sanskrit were divided by the ancient Indian grammarians into 10 classes to form the present tense system. Many verbs can be inflected after several present tense classes. It is assumed that these classes originally also marked semantic differences. In Sanskrit, however, there is usually no more differentiation of meanings (e.g. bibharti (3rd class) and bharati (1st class) are synonymous ). The 10 classes can be categorized into athematic and thematic classes. Thematic means that the stem is formed by means of a theme vowel - in Sanskrit a as the last vowel of the stem. Athematic tribes are formed differently. According to the counting of the Indian grammarians, one has the following present tense classes:

  1. Present class: thematic, subject vowel a occurs at full root . Ex. √bhṛ, full level √bhar, bhara ti ("he carries")
  2. Present class: athematic, stem is identical to root. Ex. √as, as ti ("he is")
  3. Present class: athematic, stem is formed with reduplication, e.g. √dhā, dadhā ti ("he lays")
  4. Present class: thematic, suffix ya takes the fully integrated root when the Wurzelsonant a , otherwise the schwundstufige root. E.g. √pś, paśya ti ("he sees")
  5. Present Class: athematic, suffix nu / no replaces the root, eg √stṛ. Stṛno ti ( "He scatters") stṛnu mAh ( "We spread"), stṛnv anti ( "sprinkle")
  6. Present class: thematic, subject vowel a occurs at the fading root. Ex. √tud, tuda ti ("he pushes")
  7. Present class: athematic, the root is supplemented by infix na / n . Ex. √yuj, trunk: yunaj , yuna k ti ("he connects")
  8. Present class: athematic, suffix o / u comes to the root, e.g. √kṛ, karo ti ("he does")
  9. Present class: athematic, suffix nā / nī comes to the root, e.g. √pū, pūna ti ("he cleanses")
  10. Present class: thematic, suffix aya comes to the root. E.g. √pūj, pūjaya ti ("he honors"), √cur, full stage √cor, coraya ti ("he steals"), √du, expansion stage √dāv, dāvaya ti ("he burns"),

With the stems formed in this way, the present and past tense forms in the active and medium can be formed in the present tense system. The following table shows the present tense and past tense conjugation for the 1st present tense class using the verb √bhṛ (to carry) as an example.

Present Past tense
indicative Optional imperative Prohibitive indicative
active Singular 1st person bhar- ā-mi bhar- e-yam bhar- ā-ni mā bhar- am a- bhar- am
2nd person bhar- a-si bhar- e-ḥ bhar- a mā bhar- a-ḥ a- bhar- a-ḥ
3rd person bhar- a-ti bhar- et bhar- a-tu mā bhar- at a- bhar- at
dual 1st person bhar- ā-vaḥ bhar- e-va bhar- ā-va mā bhar- ā-va a- bhar- ā-va
2nd person bhar- a-thaḥ bhar- e-tam bhar- a-tam mā bhar- a-tam a- bhar- a-tam
3rd person bhar- a-taḥ bhar- e-tām bhar- a-tām mā bhar- a-tām a- bhar- a-tām
Plural 1st person bhar- ā-maḥ bhar- e-ma bhar- ā-ma mā bhar- ā-ma a- bhar- ā-ma
2nd person bhar- a-tha bhar- e-ta bhar- a-ta mā bhar- a-ta a- bhar- a-ta
3rd person bhar- a-nti bhar- e-yuḥ bhar- a-ntu mā bhar- an a- bhar- an
medium Singular 1st person bhar- e bhar- e-ya bhar- ai mā bhar- e a- bhar- e
2nd person bhar- a-se bhar- e-thāḥ bhar- a-sva mā bhar- a-thāḥ a- bhar- a-thāḥ
3rd person bhar- a-te bhar- e-ta bhar- a-tām mā bhar- a-ta a- bhar- a-ta
dual 1st person bhar- ā-vahe bhar- e-vahi bhar- ā-vahai mā bhar- ā-vahi a- bhar- ā-vahi
2nd person bhar- ethe bhar- e-yāthām bhar- e-thām mā bhar- e-thām a- bhar- e-thām
3rd person bhar- e-te bhar- e-yātām bhar- e-tām mā bhar- e-tām a- bhar- e-tām
Plural 1st person bhar -a-mahe bhar- e-mahi bhar -a-mahai mā bhar- ā-mahi a- bhar- ā-mahi
2nd person bhar- a-dhve bhar- e-dhvam bhar- a-dhvam mā bhar- a-dhvam a -bhar- a-dhvam
3rd person bhar- a-nte bhar- e-ran bhar- a-ntām mā bhar- a-nta a- bhar- a-nta

Note the augment a in the past tense, which is placed in front of the stem. The prohibitive is also formed from the present stem, it corresponds to the form after the past tense without augment and in Sanskrit only exists in the negative form ( mā ) of the former injective.

In addition to the primary stems mentioned above (present stem, future stem, perfect stem, aorist stem) for the tenses, there are further secondary stem forms for the passive , causative , desiderative , intensive and denominative .

The passive voice has a special stem in the present tense, which is formed with the suffix ya , which occurs directly at the (fading) root. The personal endings are identical to the media endings in present tense. The above table can therefore be supplemented as follows.

Present Past tense
indicative Optional imperative Prohibitive indicative
passive Singular 1st person bhri- ye bhri- ye-ya bhri- yai mā bhri- ye a- bhri- ye
2nd person bhri- ya-se bhri- ye-thāḥ bhri- ya-sva mā bhri- ya-thāḥ a- bhri- ya-thāḥ
3rd person bhri- ya-te bhri- ye-ta bhri- ya-tām mā bhri- ya-ta a- bhri- ya-ta
dual 1st person bhri- yāva-he bhri- ye-vahi bhri- yā-vahai mā bhri- yā-vahi a- bhri- yā-vahi
2nd person bhri- ye-the bhri- ye-yāthām bhri- ye-thām mā bhri- ye-thām a- bhri- ye-thām
3rd person bhri- ye-te bhri- ye-yātām bhri- ye-tām mā bhri- ye-tam a- bhri- ye-tam
Plural 1st person bhri- yā-mahe bhri- ye-mahi bhri- yā-mahai mā bhri- yā-mahi a- bhri- yā-mahi
2nd person bhri- ya-dhve bhri- ye-dhvam bhri- ya-dhvam mā bhri- ya-dhvam a- bhriya -dhvam
3rd person bhri- ya-nte bhri- ye-ran bhri- ya-ntām mā bhri- ya-nta a- bhri- ya-nta

The causative is usually formed with the suffix aya , which occurs at the verbal root. For example, karoti ("he makes") becomes kār-aya-ti ("he lets things be done").

The desiderative is usually characterized by the reduplication of the root and the suffix sa . For example, karoti (“he makes”) becomes ci-kīr-ṣa-ti (“he desires to do”). This can also be combined with the causative, e.g. B. kār-aya-ti (he lets it be done) becomes ci-kār-ay-i-ṣa-ti (“he wishes to have it done”).

The intensive (also called frequent ) describes a repeated or particularly intensive activity. In verbs of movement it means something like "to and fro". The intensive is formed by a special reduplication and the suffix ya with medial inflection for thematic stems, otherwise without suffix and active inflection in athematic stems. For example, bhramati ("he wanders around") becomes baṃ-bhram-ya-te ("he wanders all over the place ")

Future system

The future stem of the simple future and the conditional is formed with the suffix -sya , which is used in verbs from 1st to 9th Class is placed at the full root, if necessary with a connecting vowel i . So √bhṛ becomes bhar-i-ṣya. In the case of verbs in the 10th grade, the suffix is ​​added to the present stem, e.g. B. from √cur with the present stem cor-aya becomes the future stem coray-i-ṣya .

In addition to the simple future tense, there is also the periphrastic future tense. As with the nomina agentis, it is formed with the suffix tar and forms the root √as ("to be").

All passive forms are identical to the medium. The following table gives an overview of all forms of the future tense.

indicative
simple future tense Conditional periphrastic future tense
√bhṛ (to wear) √kṛ (do / be a perpetrator)
active Singular 1st person bhar- i-ṣyā-mi a -bhar- i-ṣya-m kar- tā-smi
2nd person bhar- i-ṣya-si a -bhar- i-ṣya-ḥ kar- tā-si
3rd person bhar- i-ṣya-ti a -bhar- i-ṣya-t KAR tā
dual 1st person bhar- i-ṣyā-vaḥ a -bhar- i-ṣyā-va kar- tā-svaḥ
2nd person bhar- i-ṣya-thaḥ a -bhar- i-ṣya-tam kar- tā-sthaḥ
3rd person bhar- i-ṣya-taḥ a -bhar- i-ṣya-tām kar- tār-au
Plural 1st person bhar- i-ṣyā-maḥ a -bhar- i-ṣyā-ma kar- tā-smaḥ
2nd person bhar- i-ṣya-tha a -bhar- i-ṣya-ta kar- tā-stha
3rd person bhar- i-ṣya-nti a -bhar- i-ṣya-n kar- tār-aḥ
Medium &
Passive 		Singular 1st person bhar- i-ṣy-e a -bhar- i-ṣy-e kar- tā-he
2nd person bhar- i-ṣya-se a -bhar- i-ṣya-thāḥ kar- tā-se
3rd person bhar- i-ṣya-te a -bhar- i-ṣya-ta KAR tā
dual 1st person bhar- i-ṣyā-vahe a -bhar- i-ṣyā-vahi kar- tā-svahe
2nd person bhar- i-ṣy-ethe a -bhar- i-ṣy-ethām kar- tā-sāthe
3rd person bhar- i-ṣy-ete a -bhar- i-ṣy-etām kar- tār-au
Plural 1st person bhar- i-ṣyā-mahe a -bhar- i-ṣyā-mahi kar- tā-smahe
2nd person bhar- i-ṣya-dhve a -bhar- i-ṣya-dhvam kar- tā-dhve
3rd person bhar- i-ṣya-nte a -bhar- i-ṣya-nta kar- tār-aḥ

Aorist system

The tense of the aorist appears in classical Sanskrit in the indicative, precative and prohibitive. There are seven different ways to form the verb stem for the aorist:

Perfect system

The perfect in Sanskrit occurs in the form of the simple perfect and the periphrastic perfect. The tense of the perfect only exists in the indicative. The simple perfect is the most common form and is formed by most roots. The perfect stem is formed by reduplication and, if necessary, by stem grading. The conjugated form has special perfect endings. The periphrastic perfect is used for causatives, desideratives, denominatives and roots with a prosodic long initial vowel (except a / ā). Few roots can form both the simple and the periphrastic perfect. These are √bhṛ (to carry), √uṣ (to burn), √vid (to know), √bhi (to be afraid), √hu (to sacrifice).

Participles

There are participles in the various tense stems in the active and in the medium: The present active participle in -ant and medium in -māna are reminiscent of the corresponding forms in Latin and Greek. The participle perfect passive or past participle preteriti (the term "passive" only applies to transitive verbs) plays a special role in which -ta or -na are attached to the verb root (cf. the corresponding forms in German with -t or - en or the verbal adjective in Greek ending in -tos).

Infinitive and Absolute

From an old verbal noun on -tu, the undeclinable forms of the accusative on -tum as infinitive and the instrumental on -tvā as absolute . (cf. the Latin supinum ). The absolute denotes the sequence of actions; in German this corresponds to a construction with “after”. E.g. gṛham tyaktvā vane paribhramati : "After leaving the house he wanders around in the forest".

Use of language

In the post-Christian centuries, Sanskrit continued to develop into canonical scholarly and literary language. The rules laid down by Panini have been carefully followed; the character of the language itself changed fundamentally due to the influence of the Prakrit languages spoken in everyday life .

The different past tenses of the verb (past tense, aorist, perfect tense) had lost their meanings and denoted the past indiscriminately. In addition, all three forms fell in favor of the participle and absolute construction: Instead of "the carpenter asked" ( rathakāra aprcchat , noun in the nominative, verb in the third person indicative imperfect active) one now prefers to say "the carpenter (has) been asked" ( rathakārena pṛṣṭa , noun in the instrumental, verb in the past participle passive). This formation has become the standard past tense in the later Indo-Aryan languages ​​(so that the subject of a sentence in the past receives a special suffix, which arose from the old instrumental ending).

Instead of the numerous noun cases, extended compounds are now used (up to 30 components occur). The grammatical relations of the components result from the word order and the context; Ambiguities are consciously used as a poetic means of expression.

This gives the Sanskrit texts a completely different character than the wealth of inflections suggests.

See also

literature

Textbooks and grammars

English title

  • Thomas Egenes: Introduction to Sanskrit. 2 volumes. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 2000.
  • Walter H. Maurer: The Sanskrit Language. Routledge, London / New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-49143-3 .

Dictionaries

  • Otto von Böhtlingk : Sanskrit dictionary. Edited by the Imperial Academy of Sciences. 7 volumes. St. Petersburg 1855–1875. Reprint: Zeller, Osnabrück 1966. Known as the “Great Petersburg Dictionary” (PW).
  • Otto von Böhtlingk: Sanskrit dictionary in a shorter version. Ed. from the Imperial Academy of Sciences. St. Petersburg 1879–1889. Reprint: 3 volumes. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1959. Known as the “Kleines Petersburgerverzeichnis” (PW). Digital copies: Volumes 1–4  - Internet Archive , Volumes 5-7  - Internet Archive
  • Carl Capeller: Sanskrit Dictionary. Strasbourg 1887. Reprint: de Gruyter, Berlin 1966. (essentially an excerpt from the Petersburg dictionaries)
  • Hermann Graßmann : Dictionary for Rig-Veda. Leipzig 1873. 6., arr. and supplementary edition Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1964.
  • Werner Knobl (Kyoto): Two studies on Sanskrit words; Journal of the Naritasan Institute for Buddhist Studies, reprint from Volume VI, 1981, Japan
  • Klaus Mylius : Sanskrit - German, German - Sanskrit. Dictionary. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05143-4 .
  • Richard Schmidt : Supplements to the Sanskrit dictionary in a shorter version by Otto Böhtlingk. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1928, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10930595-2
  • Vaman Shivram Apte: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary, containing appendices on Sanskrit prosody and important literary & geographic names in the ancient history of India. 4th ext. Edition. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1978.

Web links

Wiktionary: Sanskrit  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Indian Proverbs  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ censusindia.gov.in ( Memento from April 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Klaus Mylius: Sanskrit - German, German - Sanskrit, dictionary, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005, p. 118.
  3. ↑ Hadumod Bußmann (ed.) With the assistance of Hartmut Lauffer: Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 4th, revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-45204-7 , Lemma Sanskrit.
  4. ^ Harold G. Coward, K. Kunjunni Raja, Karl H. Potter: The Philosophy of the Grammarians . Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1990, ISBN 978-81-208-0426-5 ( google.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  5. ^ Damien Keown & Charles S. Prebish 2013, p. 15, Quote: "Sanskrit served as the lingua franca of ancient India, just as Latin did in medieval Europe".
  6. ^ Ramesh Chandra Majumdar: Study of Sanskrit in South-East Asia . Sanskrit College, 1974 ( google.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  7. ^ Charles Orzech, Henrik Sørensen, Richard Payne: Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia . BRILL, 2011, ISBN 90-04-18491-0 ( google.com [accessed August 19, 2018]).
  8. ↑ Banerji, Sures (1989). A companion to Sanskrit literature: spanning a period of over three thousand years, containing brief accounts of authors, works, characters, technical terms, geographical names, myths, legends, and several appendices .
  9. ^ Data on Language and Mother Tongue. Part A: Distribution of the 22 scheduled languages-India / States / Union Territories - 2011 census. (PDF) Census of India 2011
  10. ^ Franciscus Bopp: Grammatica critica linguae sanscritae . Berlin, 1829, p. 141, § 295: "Quinque sunt modi: Indicativus, Potentialis, Imperativus, Precativus et Conditionalis."