VERBAL ENDINGS OF THE PRESENT INDICATIVE ACTIVE
As outlined in the Road Map in Chapter 3, verbs in Sanskrit express the same kind of grammatical information as their English counterparts, but do so in a different way: while English adds separate words in front of the verb itself (as in I go or they will go), Sanskrit mostly adds suffixes and personal endings at the end of a verb form. This chapter introduces the endings for the present indicative active, which are as follows:
These endings are used by all active verb forms in Sanskrit. Memorise them, starting with the first person singular, going down each column (-mi, -si, -ti) and then moving over to the next column. Distinguish the pronunciation of -thaḥ and -taḥ, which otherwise become easy to confuse.
CLASS I, IV, VI VERBS
As mentioned before, there are different ways in which Sanskrit verbal roots form the present tense stem to which these endings are added. These different ways are referred to as different verb classes.Classes I, IV and VI are formally similar and are thus treated together here. Their present tense stems are formed as follows:
Class I: The vowel -a- is added into the root before the root vowel; then -a- is added after the root.
Examples: √भृ bhṛ ‘to carry’, root vowel: -ṛ-; present stem भर- bhara-. (Next to another vowel, the vowel -ṛ- becomes the consonant -r-; see ‘Semivowels’, Chapter 2.)
budh ‘to awake’, root vowel -u-; present stem बोध- bodha-.
(Note: -a- inserted before -u- –› *-au-, which appears as -o-; see ‘Complex Vowels’, Chapter 2.)
Class IV: The root itself remains as it is; -ya- is added to it.
Example: √हृष् hṛṣ ‘to be excited’; present stem - hṛṣya-.
Class VI: Either: the root itself usually remains as it is; -a- is added to it.
Example: √विश् viś ‘to enter’; present stem विश- viśa-.
Or: a nasal is added before the final consonant of the root; -a- is added to it.
Examples: √मुच् muc ‘to release’ –› present stem - muñca-.
√विद् vid ‘to find’ –› present stem - vinda-.
√लुप् lup ‘to take, steal’ –› present stem - lumpa-.
Review the options below to login to check your access.
Log in with your Cambridge Higher Education account to check access.
If you believe you should have access to this content, please contact your institutional librarian or consult our FAQ page for further information about accessing our content.