Introduction to Pali (1991)

Lesson 3 (sample text)

Declension of bhagavant, brahman, and raajan

A few masculine nouns in stems other than a are of common occurrence. The usual title for the Buddha in Pali texts has the stem form bhagavant, meaning "the fortunate", "the bountiful", "the Master" (translations vary: "the blessed one", "the exalted one", etc.). The inflections in the nominative and accusative are as follows:-

The noun brahman, meaning "God" (the supreme being and creator in the Brahmanical religion of the hereditary priesthood of India), is inflected in the nominative and accusative singular as follows:-

The noun raajan, "king", is similarly inflected in these cases.

Seventh Conjugation

Verbs of the cur or seventh conjugation (curaadi ga.na) form present stems with the vowel e (or, much less often, with the fuller suffix aya, of which e is a contraction). The root vowel is strengthened and sometimes lengthened. As in the first conjugation i and u become e and o, but a is often lengthened (vuddhi) to aa. The personal endings are similar to those of the first conjugation. From the root dis, "to teach":-

Similarly conjugated are:-

• kath ... katheti ... he relates, he tells
• kam ... kaameti ... he loves
• cha.d.d ... cha.d.deti ... he throws away, he abandons
• (~n)~nap (with the prefix (p)pa) ... pa~n~naapeti ... he prepares, he declares (he regulates) (~n is always doubled when between two vowels: or we can say initial ~n is always in fact (~n)~n)
• dhar ... dhaareti ... he holds, he wears, he has, he accepts (with two patients/accusatives: x as y), he remembers
• mant ... manteti ... he takes counsel, he discusses (confidentially)
• mant (with the prefix aa) ... aamanteti ... he addresses
• va~nc ... va~nceti ... he deceives
• vad (to speak) (with the prefix abhi, meaning "towards", "about") ... abhivaadeti ... he salutes, he greets, he takes leave
• vaas (to dress) (with the prefix ni) ... nivaaseti ... he dresses
• vid (to feel) (with the prefixes (p)pa.ti, meaning "towards", "back", and sa.m) ... pa.tisa.mvedeti ... he feels, he experiences (something to be something)
• ve.th (to twist, to wrap) (with the prefix ni(r), meaning "out") ... nibbe.theti ... he untwists, he unravels, he explains, he rebuts

Vocabulary

Masculine nouns in a:-

• kaalo ... time, opportunity, proper time (appropriate time)
• paccayo ... condition, cause
• bhaaro ... burden, load
• laabho ... gain
• vipaako ... result
• vihaaro ... life, way of life, dwelling (also used figuratively of a mental state, e.g., of happiness)
• hattho ... hand