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ASSIGNMENT (1)

CLASSICAL LANGUAGE : SANSKRIT - II


Kartavya Gupta
201356193
Q1. The arrangement of 'Pratyaharas' in Panini's Astaadhyayi.
Ans : Panini wanted to make the Ashtadhyayi as brief as possible. One of the ways he did so
was by organizing the
Sanskrit sounds into different groups. Since many rules deal with particular letters, these
groups made it easier to
refer to particular letters. With this principle in mind, Panini organized the Sanskrit sounds in a
particular way,
letting him refer to certain groups of letters very quickly. Just like our list of fruits of above,
Panini made a list of
letters:

This list has many names, including akarasammnya, meaning "list of sounds." But after
Panini's rules became
the norm for all of Sanskrit, his work was soon seen as a holy and sacred part of Vedic study.
Some even said that
the inspiration for this list came from the beat of Shiva's drum. For that reason, these rules are
popularly called the
Shiva Sutras (or, more correctly, the ivastri ). We cannot define every group of letters
with these sutras, but we
can define the most important ones.
Q2. The classification of the alphabet - the method of articulation.

Q3. The significance of 'Kridantas' indeclinables and declinables with reference to


Ans : Kridantas play a vital role in understanding Sanskrit language. Kridantas includes nouns,
adjectives and
indeclinable words called avyayas. Kridantas are formed with root and certain suffixes called
Krits. Some times
Kridantas may occur with certain prefixes. Many morphological analyzers are lacking the
complete analysis
of Kridantas.
The affixes starting with 'krit' are called krit affixes and words formed by the addition of krit
affixes are called
kridantas, [words] ending in krit. Addition of krit affixes results in the formation of declinable
and indeclinable
participles. Participle, as in the past participle broken is well known, with people reciting lists
such as break,
broke, broken.
A participle gets its name because the word called the participle does the job of an adjective by
'participating' in the
action denoted by the verb. For instance, in the sentence, 'The Australian leg spinner carried
many cans of baked
beans' the word 'baked' describes beans and thus works like an adjective; yet like green, large
of fresh, baked is not
really an adjective; rather it is closely associated with the verb, 'bake'. Similarly in a 'broken
widow pane' and 'a
burning train', a word derived from a verb serves as an adjective. Applying the same lable to
kridantas in Sanskrit is
somewhat amusing, as all the adjectives (and nouns and other parts of speech, together
referred to as subantas) are
held and shown to be derived from verbal roots; so participles are not really a separate class in
Sanskrit.

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