The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit

A-STEM NOUNS

All noun stems ending in the same sound share a set of endings. This chapter introduces stems ending in -a, also called a-stems. These form the largest group of nouns in Sanskrit. They are always either masculine or neuter. The list of all case forms of a given noun is called the paradigm. Below is the paradigm of the a-stem noun देव- deva- (m.) ‘god’. (Larger fields containing just one form indicate that this one form is used for more than one case.)

Most of these endings are also used by a-stem nouns that are of neuter gender, such as वन- vana- (n.) ‘forest’. Neuter nouns always have identical forms for nominative and accusative (and often also the vocative) within each number. The only cases in which they are formally different from masculine nouns of the same declension are nominative, vocative and accusative. In the case of astems, the ACC SG NTR is identical to its masculine counterpart.

Memorise these forms. Recite the paradigm aloud. You may also find it useful to write each form on its own flash card or use the electronic flash cards available via the Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit website at www.cambridge-sanskrit.org.

A-STEM ADJECTIVES

The above are a-stem nouns. There also are a-stem adjectives. As was mentioned in the Road Map in Chapter 5, adjectives have different forms for each of the three genders. Masculine a-stem adjectives have the same endings as masculine a-stem nouns, and neuter a-stem adjectives the same as neuter a-stem nouns. Thus, the NOM SG forms of an adjective such as प्रिय- priya- ‘dear’ are masculine प्रियः priyaḥ and neuter प्रियम् priyam. The feminines of most a-stem adjectives follow the paradigm of āstems (read ‘long-ā-stems’), but some have ī-stem (‘long-ī-stem’) forms. As those stems will not be introduced until Chapters 9 and 13, respectively, only the masculine and neuter forms of adjectives will be used for now.