Learning Sanskrit - Phrases 2 (Hindi)

Usual Phrases - Part 2

 Introduction

Hi, Gabriel Pradīpaka again. This is my second document with usual phrases in Sanskrit. Since this introduction is almost identical with that of the first document, if you already read it, you can skip this one.

Note that by "common phrases" I will also include mere "words", which are equally usual. I will order everything by using "sets" of twenty phrases. Maybe in the future, I will find a better way to order them in different categories, but for the time being, I prefer to do it so.

For the transliteration, I will use IAST (the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, which allows the proper accentuation to be clearly shown, if there is any, e.g. "sādhu" - "well done!") and ITRANS so that you can copy the phrase and then you paste it in the ITRANS windows of Itranslator99/2003 software in order to get a particular phrase in original Sanskrit and international transliteration (IAST), if you wish so. There is an example on how to do it with Itranslator 99 regarding Sanskrit names, but it is also valid "in general" for these common phrases and the other versions of Itranslator. Just copy the phrase in ITRANS and follow the same procedure as explained in that document. If there are any doubts, tell me.

Remember that Sanskrit words generally undergo a process of metamorphosis when they form a phrase or sentence according to definite rules of Sandhi or combination. Anyway, my word-by-word translation will always tend to include their crude forms, i.e. without any mutation. Hence you will note that the words in the translation look mostly different when compared to those of the phrase.

A last thing: I will added clickable notes containing more explanatory information when necessary. Also, there will be often several ways to express something, as the Sanskrit vocabulary is much larger than the English one, but I will have to "only" include the most common ones for the sake of convenience.

Important: All that is in brackets and italicized within the translation has been added by me in order to complete the sense of a particular phrase or sentence.

Let us get down to work!

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 Set of common phrases

¹  The words "na ca" [lit. "and (ca) not (na)"] is sometimes used for expressing "than" in Sanskrit, when you make a comparison. 

²  The word "than" in the comparison is given by "na ca", lit. "and (ca) not (na)" (being "api" a mere word giving emphasis to the expression) together with the Instrumental case (plural number) of "śata" (one hundred), i.e. "śataiḥ". 

³  On one hand, the compound "prāṇa-tyāgaḥ" literally means "abandonment (tyāgaḥ) of life (prāṇa)", i.e. suicide, death. Of course, I do not want you to commit suicide, either because of poverty or dishonor, hehe. They are just sayings. On the other hand, the word "apamānāt" means "than dishonor". In this case, the term "than" is indicated by the Ablative case, as "apamānāt" is the Ablative of "apamāna" (dishonor). This is commonly seen, i.e. the Ablative case is used to make comparisons, even though you can also use "na ca" as I mentioned above. In turn, "rather" is not here expressed by means of "varam", but the root "viśiṣ" (to be better), which is here conjugated in 3^rd Person singular, Passive Voice: "it is better". 

⁴  "Rātrindivam" is a special neuter compound formed from "rātri" (night) and "diva" (day). Anyway, the first word appears in the form of "rātrim" ("to the night", Accusative case), which is turned into "rātriṁ" and then in "rātrin" by the 11^th Rule of Consonant Sandhi. Again, "rātryahanī" is a common Dvandva compound (See Compounds) containing two words "rātri" and "ahan" (derived from "ahar"- "day"), the latter being declined in Nominative, dual number. 

⁵  Note that "āpātatas" also means "unexpectedly, suddenly, just now, etc. 

⁶  The expression "katham cana" changes to "kathañcana" by the 11^th Rule of Consonant Sandhi. 

⁷  The word "bhūyāt" is the 3^rd Person singular, Benedictive Mood, of the root "bhū" (to be, become). See Verbs documents for more information. Also note that any of the three expressions, being impersonal, may be addressed to "you, you both or you all", i.e. "you" in singular, dual or plural numbers. 

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 Further Information

This document was conceived by Gabriel Pradīpaka, one of the two founders of this site, and spiritual guru conversant with Sanskrit language and Trika philosophy.

For further information about Sanskrit, Yoga and Indian Philosophy; or if you simply want to comment, ask a question or correct a mistake, feel free to contact us: This is our e-mail address.