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Vedic Sanskrit is the name given by modern scholarship to the oldest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. Sanskrit is the language that is found in the four Vedas, in particular, the Rigveda, the oldest of them, dated to have been composed roughly over the period from 1500 to 1000 BCE. Before its standardization as Sanskrit, the Vedic language was a purely spoken language during that period used before the introduction of writing in the language.^[1][2][3]

The Vedic language has inherited from its hypothesized ultimate-parent (the Proto-Indo-European language) an elaborate system of morphology, more of which has been preserved in Sanskrit as a whole than in other kindred languages such as Ancient Greek or Latin.^[4][5] Its grammar differs greatly from the later Classical Sanskrit in many regards, one being that this complex inherited morphology simplified over time.

The language descended from the hypothesized Proto-Indo-Aryan language, which entered the Indian subcontinent with the till unprovable arrival of the Proto-Indo-Aryans dated to be around 1800–1500 BCE.^[6][7] The Vedic hymns are estimated to have been composed between 1500 and 1000 BCE, with the language of each hymn fixed at the time of its oral composition,^[8] establishing a religious canon around a literary tradition.

As the popular speech unavoidably evolved over the centuries the Vedic hymns began to be increasingly inaccessible. In order to "arrest" language change, there arose a rigorous linguistic tradition aimed at preserving the literary language, culminating in the work of Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyayī, dated around 600–400 BCE, which marks the beginning of 'Sanskrit', referred to in contradistinction to the Vedic language as 'Classical. ^{[verification needed]}

Despite these efforts, by the time of Pāṇini's final definition, the language had undergone some changes, especially in grammar. The following sections will focus on these differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Those features that were incorporated into the 'official definition' by Panini can be seen in Classical Sanskrit and related pages.^[9][10][a]

Over time, the language that would become Classical Sanskrit reduced and regularized much of the complex morphology that it had originally inherited from it's hypothetical parent the Proto-Indo-European language:^[9][11]

• Vedic used the older athematic approach to inflection far more than the classical language, which tended to replace them using thematic forms in their place.
• The subjunctive mood of Vedic was also lost in Classical Sanskrit.
• The three synthetic past tenses^[12] (imperfect, perfect and aorist) were still clearly distinguished semantically in Vedic.
• A fifth mood, the injunctive, also existed.
• There were more than 12 ways of forming infinitives in Vedic, of which Classical Sanskrit retained only one form.
• ī-stems differentiate the devī́ and vrkī́s feminines, a difference lost in Classical Sanskrit.

Declension of a noun in Sanskrit involves the interplay of two 'dimensions': 3 numbers and 8 cases, yielding a combination of 24 possible forms, although owing to syncretism of some forms, the practical number can be lower.^{[13] [b]}

In addition, adjectives behave much the same way morphologically as nouns do, and can conveniently be considered together. While the same noun cannot be seen to be of more than one gender, adjectives change gender on the basis of the noun they are being applied to, along with case and number, thus giving the following variables:^[15][16]

In Proto-Indo-European, a new system developed wherein an intermediary called the thematic vowel is inserted to the root before the final endings are appended: *-o- which in Sanskrit becomes -a-, producing the thematic stem.

Declension of a thematic stem is less complicated as a host of Sandhi rules apply no more, and the later stages of the Sanskrit language see an increase in the profusion of thematic nouns. Thus in classical Sanskrit, the thematic pā́da-s is more likely to be found than its athematic predecessor.^[17][18]

Sanskrit nouns are declined for eight cases:

• nominative: marks the subject of a verb.
• accusative: used for the direct object of a transitive verb.
• genitive: marks a noun as modifying another noun.
• dative: used to indicate the indirect object of a transitive verb.
• instrumental: marks the instrument or means by, or with, which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action.
• ablative: used to express motion away from something.
• locative: corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions in, on, at, and by.
• vocative: used for a word that identifies an addressee.^[19]

The basic scheme of suffixation is given in the table below and applies to many nouns and adjectives.

However, according to the gender and the final consonant or vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are internal sandhi rules dictating the form of the inflected word. Furthermore, these are standalone forms, which when used in actual phrases are subject to external sandhi.^[c][20][21]

This is the old athematic method of Proto-Indo-European declension still in active use in Vedic.^[22][23][d]

A group of 80 polysyllabic ī-stems, most of which are feminine, are accented on the final vowel. Known as vṛkī́s feminines,^[24] these exhibit different behavior during declension compared to the later language, such as the nominative singular retaining the -s ending, and in the accent staying on the -i-.

Further, a number of largely feminine ī-stems, known as the devī́-feminines, also exhibit some differences compared to the later language.

These, along with root stems in -ī,^[f] can be seen below:^[25][26]

Vedic Sanskrit inherits from the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European period the ability to combine two or more words into a single one treated as a simple word with regard to accent, inflexion and construction.

The Vedic language, both in the frequency and the length of the compounds is very similar to the Greek of Homer. In the Ṛg-veda and the Atharvaveda, no compounds of more than 3 independent members are found, and even compounds of 3 members are rare: pūrva·kāma·kṛ́tvan, "fulfilling former wishes."^[27] In the later language, both the frequency and the number of words used to form compounds greatly increases.^[28]

The main types of compound-forming were the co-ordinative ^[α], determinative ^[β], possessive ^[γ] and the adverbial ^[δ].^[29]

See Sanskrit Numerals

Verb conjugation in Sanskrit involves the interplay of number^[ε], person^[ζ], voice^[η], mood^[θ] and tense^[ι], with the following variables:^[30][31]

Further, participles are considered part of the verbal systems although they are not verbs themselves, and as with other Sanskrit nouns, they can be declined across seven or eight cases, for three genders and three numbers.^[32]

As many as a dozen types of infinitives can be found in Vedic, although only a couple of types are frequent.

The starting point for conjugation is the root. As a first step, the root may be subject to treatment to form a stem, to which personal endings are suffixed. The types of possible treatment are:^[33][34]

• Suffixion: the theme vowel -a- may be appended, or one of several other suffixes -ya-, -ó- / -nó-, -nā-, and -aya-.^[35]
• Infixion: A nasal infix (n, ñ, ṇ, ṅ) may be inserted within the root, which when accented is -ná-.^[36]
• The root may undergo reduplication.^[37]
• In some tenses or moods, the augment á- may be prefixed.^[38]
• In many cases, the accent may vary between the root and the ending, accompanied by corresponding changes in the gradation of the root vowel.^[39]

If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guṇa-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the vṛddhi-grade vowel as ā + V.

Conjugational endings in Vedic convey person, number, and voice. Different forms of the endings are used depending on what tense stem and mood they are attached to. Verb stems or the endings themselves may be changed or obscured by sandhi.

The primary, secondary, perfect and imperative endings are essentially the same as seen in Classic Sanskrit. The subjunctive endings can be seen below:^[40]

Primary endings are used with present indicative and future forms. Secondary endings are used with the imperfect, conditional, aorist, and optative. Perfect, imperative and subjunctive endings are used with the perfect, imperative and subjunctive respectively.

The present system includes the present tense, the imperfect, and the optative, imperative and subjunctive moods, and well as rare occurrences of injunctive ^[41]

The perfect is used mainly in the indicative. The stem is formed with reduplication as with the present system.

The perfect system also produces separate "strong" and "weak" forms of the verb — the strong form is used with the singular active, and the weak form with the rest.

The perfect in the Sanskrit can be in form of the simple perfect and the periphrastic perfect.

The Simple Perfect can form an augmented Pluperfect, and beyond the indicative mood it can also form Perfect Subjunctives, Optatives, and Imperatives. All of these are lost in Classical Sanskrit, when it forms only indicatives.

The simple perfect is the most common form and can be made from most of the roots. The simple perfect stem is made by reduplication and if necessary by stem lengthening. The conjugated form takes special perfect endings. The periphrastic perfect is used with causative, desiderative, denominative and roots with prosodic long anlauted vowel (except a/ā). Only few roots can form both the simple and the periphrastic perfect. These are bhṛ 'carry', uṣ 'burn', vid 'know', bhi 'to be afraid', hu 'sacrifice'.

The aorist system includes aorist proper (with past indicative meaning, e.g. abhūs 'you were') and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive (used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, e.g. mā bhūs 'don't be'). The principal distinction of the two is presence/absence of an augment – a- prefixed to the stem.

The aorist system stem actually has three different formations: the simple aorist, the reduplicating aorist (semantically related to the causative verb), and the sibilant aorist. The simple aorist is taken directly from the root stem (e.g. bhū-: a-bhū-t 'he was'). The reduplicating aorist involves reduplication as well as vowel reduction of the stem. The sibilant aorist is formed with the suffixation of s to the stem. The sibilant aorist by itself has four formations:

• athematic s-aorist
• athematic iṣ-aorist
• athematic siṣ-aorist
• thematic s-aorist

The future system is formed with the suffixion of -syá- or -iṣyá- and guṇa.

Comprehensive conjugation tables can be found in the Classical Sanskrit page linked above. Some notes on elements specific to Vedic Sanskrit below:

bhū – 'to be'

The optative takes secondary endings. -ya- is added to the stem both in the active and the middle. In some forms the cluster ya is dropped out.

The subjunctive takes subjunctive endings.

The following stems can take all endings.

as – 'to be'

The most notable difference between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit is in the area of the infinitive. Against the single type of infinitive in the later language, there exist, in Vedic, several forms, all of them being old cases of verbal nouns.^[42][43]

The following main types of infinitive can be identified in Vedic, noted in descending order of frequency:

• Dative
• Accusative
• Ablative-genitive
• Locative

The ending used to form this adjective is -e.^[i] The ending may be directly added to the root, whether of a simple or compounded verb, or additional elements (-as-, -i, -ti, -tu, -tavā, -tyā, -dhyā, -man, -van) may be interspersed in different cases of roots.^[43]

The ending used here is either -am affixed to the weak form of a root, or -tum just as in the Latin supine.^[43] The latter form is the only one that survives in Classical Sanskrit.^[42]

This functions more as a verbal noun than a genuine infinitive. There are again two ways of forming this: -as or -tos.^[43]

This is very rare, even in the oldest language. Between the root and the locative ending -i, -tar- or -san- may be inserted.^[43]

Because of Vedic's complex declension system the word order is free (with tendency toward SOV).

Sample Vedic Sanskrit text with accentuation etc.:

• Sanskrit grammar
• Sanskrit nouns
• Sanskrit verbs
• Classical Sanskrit
• Vedic accent
• Proto-Indo-Aryan language
• Proto-Indo-Iranian language
• Proto-Indo-European language

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• Paul Kiparsky "The Vedic Injunctive: Historical and Synchronic Implications"
• Paul Kiparsky "Aspect and Event Structure in Vedic"
• Daniel Baum "The Imperative in the Rigveda"
• "The «Virtually Unknown» Benedictive Middle in Classical Sanskrit"
• The Sanskrit Heritage Site