The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit

As we have seen, how a Sanskrit noun is declined depends on the final sound of its stem. Pronouns – words such as English ‘I’, ‘she’ or ‘this’ – display yet another set of endings. While many of these have already been encountered in relation to other paradigms, some are unique to pronouns.

Sanskrit has personal pronouns for the first and second person (equivalent to English I and you –› Chapter 32) and the third person (English he/she/it, see below), demonstrative pronouns (denoting this or that, see below and –› Chapters 22, 36, 39), and a number of so-called pronominal adjectives that employ some pronoun endings (–› Chapter 22). Note that the 1st- and 3rd-person personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns do not have a vocative: for addressing someone, the 2nd-person pronoun (त्वम् ‘you’) is used; त्वम्, in turn, functions as both nominative and vocative.

Furthermore, some pronouns employ different stems within one paradigm, which makes them more difficult to memorise. This also has the effect that the common practice of citing a nominal form by its stem (नरैः, नरम्, नरौ, for example, all have the same stem, नर-) cannot be used, and so this book cites the pronouns in question by reference to both their NOM SG MASC and their ‘stem’ form used in compounds (which is often formally identical to the NOM SG NTR). Thus we get स:/तद्- ‘he, she, it; this’ and अयम्/इदम्- ‘this; that’ below, एषः/एतद्- ‘this; that’ in Chapter 22, अहम्/ मत्- ‘I’, त्वम्/त्वत्- ‘you’ in Chapter 32 and असौ/अदस्- ‘that’ in Chapter 39.

सः/तद्- ‘HE, SHE, IT; THIS’

1) Forms

Note:

• – As in other paradigms, the neuter is identical to the masculine except in NOMACC; NOM and ACC NTR are identical to each other in singular, dual and plural, respectively.

• – The SG is most different from what we have encountered so far; in the DU and PL, the forms and endings are largely recognisable. Thus: concentrate first on memorising the MASC SG; note the unfamiliar LOC SG form Then study especially the other forms that are unexpected: NOM PL ते, GEN PL तेषाम्.