Reading Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: An Elementary Grammatical Guide
Author: Venerable Professor K.L. Dhammajoti
4th revised edition.
The Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2021. pp. 489++
ISBN 978-988-16820-5-5

The major revision is in the Glossary, which now provides Tibetan correspondence to those entries with ancient Chinese terms corresponding to the Sanskrit. For many of these entries, the students can now also find more explanations. Some hopefully improved explanations are added, sometimes with additional examples, in the grammatical discussion in the book. An appendix of declensions and conjugation is also provided.

As in the previous edition, the Romanized sentences are generally given in the form reflecting (emulating) the printed Sanskrit Devanāgarī texts, so that students can practise removing the sandhi where permissible. But in view of those who need help in such an exercise, we have now shown the separable Romanized forms of the Exercise sentences, where appropriate, in in the annotation of three of the lessons: five, six and seven. Students can learn further about separating the Sanskrit words that have been combined in sandhi from the Romanaized Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā provided after Lesson 13. The Devanāgarī text of this Sūtra is based on Conze’s edition, checked against Müller’s Sanskrit edition.

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Lesson 1
1.1 The Sanskrit Alphabet
1.2 Three genders of nouns: masculine (m), neutral (n) and feminine (f)
1.3 Three numbers: singular (sg), dual (du) and plural (pl)
1.4 Case (vibhakti)
1.5 Masculine nouns ending with -a
1.6 Adjectives
1.7 Omission of the verb “to be” in a sentence
1.8 Indeclinable particles ca, vā, api, na and the affix -vat

Lesson 2
2.1 The accusative case (acc)
2.2 The ablative case (abl)
2.3 Accusative and ablative case of m nouns ending in -a: buddha
2.4 Neutral nouns ending in -a: phala
2.5 Sanskrit verbs
2.6 Verbal prefixes
2.7 Three grades of strengthening of vowels
2.8 Verbs of classes I, IV, VI, X
2.9 Particle iti
2.10 The emphatic particle eva

Lesson 3
3.1 The dative case
3.2 Genitive used in the dative sense
3.3 Expression of “have”
3.4 The vocative case
3.5 The declensions learned so far
3.6 Declension of f ā-ending noun: prajñā
3.7 Suffixes -tā, -tva , -tas
3.8 Class VI verbs
3.9 Class IV verbs
3.10 Class X verbs
3.11 Summary of differences between verbs of class I, IV, VI and X
3.12 Personal pronouns: 1st person stem: mad, 2nd person stem: tvad

Lesson 4
4.1 Declension of m nouns ending in -u
4.2 Declension of n nouns ending in -u
4.3 Declension of f nouns ending in -u
4.4 Declension of pronoun saḥ (m) ‘he’/‘that’ and eṣaḥ (m) ‘this’
4.5 Declension of pronoun tat (n) ‘it’/‘that’ and etat ‘this’
4.6 The enclitic pronoun enam
4.7 The causatives
4.8 The denominatives
4.9 The instrumental case
4.10 Past Passive Participles (PPP)

Lesson 5
5.1 Declension of m nouns ending in -i : agni
5.2 Declension of n nouns ending in -i : vāri
5.3 Declension of f nouns ending in -i : jāti
5.4 Declension of f nouns ending in -ī : nadī
5.5 Declension of pronoun sā (f)
5.6 Declension of demonstratives: ayam (m), idam (n), iyam (f)
5.7 Declension of interrogative pronouns: kaḥ (m), kim (n), kā (f)
5.8 The interrogative particles, api and kim (question markers)
5.9 Parasmaipada and ātmanepada verbs
5.10 Paradigm for the conjugation of ātmanepada verbs
5.11 Gerunds
5.12 Hard and soft consonants
5.13 Introduction to sandhi rules

Lesson 6
6.1 Possessive suffix -in
6.2 “Subjective genitive” and “objective genitive”
6.3 Genitive case functioning as an instrumental
6.4 Future passive participles (FPP. Also known as gerundive)
6.5 Relatives
6.6 Numerals (cardinals)
6.7 Primary and secondary suffixes

Lesson 7
7.1 Declension of bhagavant (m)
7.2 Possessive suffixes ‘-mant’ and ‘-vant’
7.3 The Future Tense
7.4 Compounds — dvandva and tatpuruṣa
7.5 Infinitive
7.6 Verbs and nouns formed from noun/adjective + √bhū and + √kṛ
7.7 Declension of the demonstrative asau (m)
7.8 Declension of the demonstrative adaḥ (n)
7.9 Declension of the demonstrative asau (f)
7.10 Pronominal adjectives

Lesson 8
8.1 Declension of noun ending in -an: ātman, rājan, karman, nāman
8.2 Class II verbs
8.3 Verb standing at the beginning of a sentence
8.4 The Passive Voice
8.5 Present participles (PrP)
8.6 Karmadhāraya compound
8.7 Avyayībhāva compound

Lesson 9
9.1 Declension of manas (n) and sumanas (m,f)
9.2 Declension of āyus (n)
9.3 Declension of saṃpad (f), vāc (vāk) (f)
9.4 Some irregular declensions: grāmaṇiḥ (m), pathin (m)
9.5 Class IX verbs
9.6 The imperative mood (ipv)
9.7 Numbers (ordinal)

Lesson 10
10.1 Declension of agent nouns
10.2 Periphrastic Future
10.3 Conjugation of Class V Verbs
10.4 Conjugation of Class VIII Verbs
10.5 The optative mode
10.6 Bahuvrīhi compounds

Lesson 11
11.1 Past Participle Active (PPA)
11.2 Conjugation of Class III verbs
11.3 The imperfect tense
11.4 Conjugation of the present and imperfect of the thematic verb √budh, and the athematic verbs √jñā and √dā
11.5 Locative Absolute and Genitive Absolute

Lesson 12
12.1 Class VII verbs
12.2 Conditional tense (condl)
12.3 The Perfect Tense (pf)
12.4 Comparatives and superlatives

Lesson 13
13.1 The Aorist Tense (aor)
13.2 Prohibitive (injunctive)
13.3 Desiderative and Intensive (/frequentative)

English translation of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā

Appendix: Sandhi tables, declension and conjugation tables

Useful References

Glossary

Index