20. On case endings (vibhakti)

After the sutras on avyaya (indeclinables), a couple of sutras follow on the topic of case endings (vibhakti). We have come across the case ending for nominative plural termed jas or Jas: the actual ending is –as, realised as –ah, as indicated in the last post. The J- in Jas is a mere marker, an iT. Here are the seven case endings in three numbers and the corresponding technical terms for them.

	Case	singular	dual	plural
1st. Prathamā	Nominative (name by itself, subject)	sU	au	Jas
2nd. Dvitīyā	accusative (as an object)	am	auŢ	Śas
3rd. Tŗtīyā	Instrumental (by)	Ţā	bhyām	bhis
4th. Caturthī	dative (to)	Ŋe	bhyām	bhyas
5th. Pañcamī	ablative (from)	Ŋasi	bhyām	bhyas
6th. Şaşţhī	Genitive or possessive (of)	Ŋas	os	ām
7th. Saptamī	locative (in)	Ŋi	os	suP
	vocative (hi!)

The ordinal names Prathamā etc. in Sanskrit stand for 1^st, etc. as indicated in the first column, and the name of the relationship in English is given in the second column, and the respective case endings in the subsequent columns for singular number, dual, and plural respectively. Some of the case endings have an in-built iT or marker, e.g. the J- in Jas, and so on, whereas others like au, am do not. This is a riddle to be answered when we come to the way rules re formulated to provide for all the existing variations in the respective endings. We can probably surmise, however, that what the absence of iT markers suggests is, that some cases are inherently less variable, and therefore do not need to be expressed or invoked in an abstract manner of naming, while those provided with an iT marker are probably inherently more variable. The correctness of this suggestion will be proved or disproved s we come to the specific case endings and their related rules.

Here’s another convention regarding these case endings: by combining the initial letter (sound) of an earlier case ending with the last letter of a subsequent case ending, we can make short hand notations for a range of case endings (just like we had pratyāhāra for letters, e.g. iK, aiC, etc., in fact these are pratyāhāra for case endings): sUP covers all the 21 vibhakti, taking the first sound in sU and the last sound in suP. Similarly, the first five endings are termed sUŢ, taking the initial sound in sU and the last sound in auŢ. These five forms – nominative (all three numbers) and accusative singular and dual – often have one type of base, and the other forms have  different base, for the same noun. This is an empirical observation, obviously, and not a rule contrived by the grammarian. The upshot is, however, that a special name is given to this group of the first five case forms, and this term is sarvanāmasthāna, as expressed in this sutra:

1.1.42 śi sarvanāmasthānam

Both words are in nominative singular (1/1), and the paraphrase is:

Vŗtti: śi iti (thus) etat (this) sarvanāmasthāna-samjñam (specific word) bhavati (is, constitutes).

That is, the term śi just stands in for the group called sarvanāmasthāna- samjñam. As we saw in the past, the sutra merely associates the terms, but does not throw any light on what it signifies; that information is dispersed in other, remote parts of the grammar, specifically here in sutras like 7.1.20, which assigns the term śi (or Śi, if we recognize that the initial letter is just a marker), to Jas and Śas, that is plural nominative and accusative forms of neuter gender.

Apart from this, Sharma refers to two other contexts in which the sarvanāmasthānam appellation is invoked. One is from 7.1.72, wherein the augment n (nUM) is introduced into neuter stems nominative and accusative). The other is the lengthening of the short vowel in such neuter gender stems, by sutra 6.4.8. These rules generate the forms (declension) characteristic of neuter stems, e.g. phalam phale phalāni; madhu madhunī madhūni, and so on.

There is one more sutra regarding this group of forms, and this refers to words that are not of neuter gender:

1.1.43 sud̨anapumsakasya          or,

Suţ (1/1) anapumsakasya (6/1)

Adding, by anuvrtti or carry-forward the appropriate term from the preceding sutra, and dividing the phrases into the constituent words, we get the paraphrase

Vŗtti:

suţ (sUŢ) iti (the items denoted by the group of endings called sUŢ, see sutra 4.1.2) pañca (five) vacanāni (word-forms) sarvanāmasthāna- samjñani (sarvanāmasthāna- words) bhavanti (are), napumsakād anyatra (when they occur after a non-neuter stem).

That is, even in non-neuter stems, these five forms will have the lengthening of the vowel and introduction of –n in the stem before the case endings sUT, if they are termed as sarvanāmasthānam stems:

E.g., the word rājan ‘king’ has the base rājān before the sUŢ case endings, and the base rāgñy (or rāgŋy, I really am not sure how to represent the combination of  velars and nasals!) in other cases, thus

Nominative: rājā rājānau rājānah

Accusative: rājānam rājānau rāgŋyah

The first five (nominative - all three numbers, accusative - singular and dual) show the lengthening and introduction of –n (not in the nominative singular though: there is a separate injunction for this specific case).

In summary, we see that the type of word sarvanāmasthāna- samjñam refers to neuter nom. and acc. plural (Śi), or to non-neuter nouns in the first five forms of the vibhakti (case endings), with some other environment conditions that will occur in the concerned sutras.  This wraps up this little sally into the sarvanāmasthāna word forms.