Case 6: "of"

Also known as: the genitive case, ṣaṣṭhī vibhakti ("sixth case")

Introduction

All of the cases that we have studied so far have described the way that a noun relates to a verb, or else to the sentence as a whole. This new case, however, does not. Instead, it describes a connection between two nouns. It implies the same sort of meaning as the English word "of."

• आचार्यस्य पुत्रो वनं गच्छति

  ācāryasya putro vanaṃ gacchati

  The son of the teacher goes to the forest.

• पुत्रो वीराणां तिष्ठति

  putro vīrāṇāṃ tiṣṭhati

  The son of the heroes stands.

• गजानां वनं गच्छन्ति

  gajānāṃ vanaṃ gacchanti

  They go to the forest of the elephants.

Let's call this the "of" case. Traditionally, this case is the sixth case that students learn. To make things less confusing, I will follow tradition and call this case case 6 for short.

Case 6 is very flexible; the Sanskrit grammarian Panini even called it a "catch-all" case that should be used when no other case quite fits. In addition to case 1 and case 2, case 6 is one of the most important and useful Sanskrit cases.

"Having" something

In addition to the roles above, case 6 also express the sense of "having" or "possessing" something. Sanskrit has no verb for "having" something, so we must use case 6 if we want to show ownership. The "owner" is in case 6, and the "owned thing" is in case 1. A verb that means "be" — like bhav — is optional.

• वीरस्य कृष्णो ऽश्वः (भवति)

  vīrasya kṛṣṇo 'śvaḥ (bhavati)

  The hero has a black horse.

When we talked about the object case, I mentioned that English uses the object case in just a few places. In English, "of"-case inflection is much more common. The words "whose," "my," "your," "his," "her," "its," and "their" are all in the "of" case. All of these words are used today. As far as I am aware, this is the full extent of "of"-case inflection in modern English.

Inflection

You can find the endings for case 6 in the table below:

Pronouns

As usual, the first- and second-person pronouns are irregular.

The third-person pronoun is more regular, but it still uses a different ending:

Sandhi

Vowel Sandhi: -a, -ā

Two rules of vowel sandhi are here. We have already studied one: similar vowels will combine to produce the long form.

• गजस्य अहं फलं गच्छामि → गजस्याहं फलं गच्छामि

  gajasya ahaṃ phalaṃ gacchāmi → gajasyāhaṃ phalaṃ gacchāmi

  I go to the elephant's fruit.

But we haven't studied the second. This rule applies when the two vowels are dissimilar.

-a/-ā combines with the vowel that follows it and strengthens it by one level. If the vowel can't be strengthened any more, then -a/-ā disappears.

• गजस्य इच्छति फलम् → गजस्येच्छति फलम्

  gajasya icchati phalam → gajasyecchati phalam

  He wants the elephant's fruit.

This rule is just a product of vowel strengthening. For that reason, it is extremely easy to understand.

Internal Sandhi: n to ṇ

The internal sandhi rule that causes n to change to ṇ is daunting and complicated. Most textbooks offer the full rule and leave the student to grapple with its seemingly arbitrary parts. This guide will do something a little different and state the principle of the rule without detailing all of its exceptions and qualifications. As you read more Sanskrit, you will develop an intuition for how this rule acts. (You are welcome to read the full rule, of course, but I do not recommend it.)

Here is the underlying process:

Retroflexed sounds, if they are not stop consonants, cause n to change to a retroflexed ṇ if the change "feels" right. Generally, n should be followed by a vowel, and there should not be any intrusive consonants between n and the retroflexed sound.

As always, speaking these changes out loud will help greatly. The intuition here is that some quality of "retroflexion" endures in the word until it finds release or blockage. For illustration, consider the examples below. These examples feature some words that we have not studied, but just focus on the sandhi for now.

• अरुन → अरुण

  aruna → aruṇa

  The retroflexion passes through all vowel sounds and finds release in n.

• अर्जुन → अर्जुन

  arjuna → arjuna

  The retroflexion is blocked by j, which changes the point of pronunciation.

• रामायन → रामायण

  rāmāyana → rāmāyaṇa

  m does not block the retroflexion because, as a lip consonant, m does not change the position of the tongue enough to block the retroflexion. y does not block the retroflexion because y is pronounced more like a vowel than like a consonant. (Likewise for v. But l causes too much of a change in the position of the tongue, so it blocks the retroflexion. r is retroflexed, so the retroflexion starts again when it appears.)

• कुर्वन्ति → कुर्वन्ति

  kurvanti → kurvanti

  The retroflexion continues to n, but it cannot find release. n should be followed by a vowel, not by a consonant.

• ब्रह्मन् → ब्रह्मन्

  brahman → brahman

  n is not followed by a vowel.

• ब्राह्मन → ब्राह्मण

  brāhmana → brāhmaṇa

  The hm sound does not block the retroflexion because h (a soft-palate consonant) and m (a lip consonant) do not disturb the tongue enough to cause the retroflexion to disappear.

Certainly, this "intuitive" approach to the rule carries some uncertainty with it. But noun stems will have the retroflexion already applied, and only two of the endings we've seen so far are affected by it:

• नरानाम् → नराणाम्

  narānām → narāṇām

  of the men

• पत्त्रानि → पत्त्राणि

  pattrāni → pattrāṇi

  the leaves

For these reasons, it is not worth our time to study the smaller details of this rule.

Other -ḥ Sandhi

The term other -ḥ sandhi refers to the rules that we use whenever the vowel in front of the visarga is neither a nor ā. The rules for other -ḥ sandhi are almost identical to the rules for -āḥ sandhi. First, review the rules of -āḥ sandhi below:

Second Letter

Combination

all vowels

ā —

voiced consonants

ā —

c, ch

āś —

ṭ, ṭh

āṣ —

t, th

ās —

other consonants

āḥ —

Now, study the rules for other -ḥ sandhi. I've used an extra dash (—) to indicade the original vowel.

Second Letter

Combination

all vowels

—r —

voiced consonants

—r —

c, ch

—ś —

ṭ, ṭh

—ṣ —

t, th

—s —

other consonant

—ḥ —

The rules are exactly alike. Most importantly, note that the visarga becomes r in front of voiced sounds.