Exercises: The tatpuruṣa

Vocabulary

पुरुष

puruṣa

m

man; servant; Purusha

In Sanskrit grammar, the word puruṣa refers to what we call "person."

मद्

mad

pronoun

(base of the 1st-person pronoun) [me]

मम

mama

inflected

my (case 6 singular)

मामक

māmaka

mfn

mine, my own

Miscellaneous

रथ

ratha

m

chariot

उत्तम

uttama

mfn

best, highest

Creating compounds

Each compound below has been separated into multiple words. Recreate each compound and give its meaning. Not all compounds will be in case 1.

• पुरुषाणाम् उत्तमः

  puruṣāṇām uttamaḥ

• नीलानि फलानि

  nīlāni phalāni

• सुन्दरा अश्वाः

  sundarā aśvāḥ

• नगरस्य मध्ये

  nagarasya madhye

• मम पुत्रकेन

  mama putrakena

• ग्रामस्य वृक्षात्

  grāmasya vṛkṣāt

• वैराय वीराय

  vairāya vīrāya

Translation

Translate from Sanskrit to English. Words in parentheses mark replacements that I've made in the original text.

• उभयोर् मध्ये (तिष्ठति) रथोत्तमः

  ubhayor madhye (tiṣṭhati) rathottamaḥ

Answers

Substitution

In these exercises, the number of the first noun is lost. In a real Sanskrit text, we have to depend on surrounding sentences to determine how to translate these compounds. For each compound, the likeliest meaning is given first, followed by the original meaning. If only one interpretation is possible, no second meaning is given.

• पुरुषोत्तमः

  puruṣottamaḥ

  the best of men; purushottama

• नीलफलानि

  nīlaphalāni

  blue fruits

• सुन्दराश्वाः

  sundarāśvāḥ

  beautiful horses

• नगरमध्ये

  nagaramadhye

  in the middle of the village

• मत्पुत्रकेन

  matputrakena

  with my little son

• ग्रामवृक्षात्

  grāmavṛkṣāt

  from the village tree

• वैरवीराय

  vairavīrāya

  for the hostile hero

Translation

• The best of chariots (stands) in the middle of both of them. Bhagavad Gita 1.24

  Here, "both" refers to the two armies of the Mahabharata war. The chariot is Arjuna's; at this point, he is standing in the middle of the battlefield.

Where are the other exercises?

In the lesson, I mentioned that the tatpurusha would allow you to read hundreds of new lines and verses. The trouble, however, is that our ability to use and read any sort of Sanskrit compound is limited by two factors:

• Noun stems. We only know of nouns whose stems end in a.

• Verbal nouns. Some very common nouns have the properties of verbs, but these nouns are tricky to construct and understand. Without knowing how these common nouns are built, our compounds are really only half complete.

We will study both of these features in Nouns, which follows Starting Out. Until that time (which is not too far away, I promise!), we will continue to practice with the words we have and continue to build our vocbaulary.