kriyā

Verbs are words which are used to represent a action which is being performed by the object. In Samskrutam, verbs follows a different way than in which we approach verbs in the english language.

Verbs can be formed in many way but we will use Panini's Ashtadhyayi to undertand how they are formed in a simple way.

[ सुप्तिङन्तं पदम्।   १.४.१४ ] is the 14 sutra from the 1 adhyaya, 4th chapter of Panini Ashtadhyayi. When we bifurcate the sutra we get four words, Sup, tiṅ, anta and padam [sup-tiṅ-antam padam], This means that which end in sup or tiṅ is called a pada or word.

sup and tiṅ are both pratyāhāras that refer to different word endings. tiṅ refers to the endings used for verbs. So in the Ashtadhyayi system, verbs are called tiṅ-anta (“ending in a tiṅ suffix”).

Each verb is made of three parts, the prefix , root which hold the meaning or essence of the verb and suffix or ending which is based on the sutras given in Ashtadhyayi. Panini ashtadhyayi has another book by the name of Dhatupatha which consists of over 2000 dhatu or verb roots. This is given as the first sutra of 3rd chapter of 1 adhyaya.

भूवादयो धातवः। १.३.१ This sutra is bifurcated into two words, Bhu[भूवादयो], which means alist of words and धातव means dhatu. This is the list which is mentioned in Dhatupatha.

लकार

lakāra

Now , a root alone is not enough to convey the action which is being performed. We need to know who and how many are performing the action. For this we use what is called Suffix or endings. All suffixes which are described in Ashtadhyayi start from sound l, therefore they are called as lakars / [लकार] or tenses.

In the Paninian system we have 6 lakars which represent 6 kind of time [3 for Past, 1 for Present and 2 for Future] called kāla / [काल] and 4 moods called artha / [अर्थ].

All of them are explained in detail in the Ashtadhyayi which is only 40,000 letters long consisting around 4000 sutras.

अर्थ

Arthas

The 4 arthas are :

Imperative Mood - लोट्

Potential Mood - विधिलिङ्

Benedictive Mood - आशिर्लिङ्

Conditional Mood - लृङ्