← Back to Lesson 8
🌱 Let Us Begin with Action
A sentence needs something to say.
Someone may read.
Someone may go.
Someone may speak.
Someone may bow.
These words that express an action are called
क्रियापदानि.
Verbs.
We will not memorise a large verb table today.
We will simply learn a few tiny actions.
Then we will notice how the verb changes.
📖 पठ् — To Read / Study
Our first action is:
अहं पठामि।
ahaṃ paṭhāmi
I read.
त्वं पठसि।
tvaṃ paṭhasi
You read.
सः पठति।
saḥ paṭhati
He reads.
सा पठति।
sā paṭhati
She reads.
🌼 Can You See?
Look at the verb.
पठामि
I read
पठसि
You read
पठति
He / She reads
The action is the same.
But the ending changes according to who
is doing the action.
We will understand this more deeply later.
🌿 गम् — To Go
Another very useful verb is
गच्छ्,
the present-tense stem seen in forms of
गम् — to go.
अहं गच्छामि।
ahaṃ gacchāmi
I go.
त्वं गच्छसि।
tvaṃ gacchasi
You go.
सः गच्छति।
saḥ gacchati
He goes.
सा गच्छति।
sā gacchati
She goes.
🪷 नम् — To Bow
Now something especially meaningful for our
Gurukulam.
अहं नमामि।
ahaṃ namāmi
I bow.
त्वं नमसि।
tvaṃ namasi
You bow.
सः नमति।
saḥ namati
He bows.
सा नमति।
sā namati
She bows.
🌱 A Few More
We will simply become familiar with these.
हसति।
hasati
He / She smiles.
वदति।
vadati
He / She speaks.
जपति।
japati
He / She chants.
ध्यायति।
dhyāyati
He / She meditates.
🙏 Sanskrit Through Sādhana
Now let us combine the little pieces we have learned.
अहं ध्यायामि।
I meditate.
Sanskrit can begin with a single action.
नमामि — I bow.
जपामि — I chant.
ध्यायामि — I meditate.
🌼 Notice the Sentence
Look at this:
The second sentence does not explicitly say
अहम्.
Yet पठामि already tells us
that the speaker is "I".
Sanskrit can therefore express the subject
through the verb itself.
We will explore this beautiful feature gradually.
🧠 Quick Quiz
1. What does पठामि mean?
2. What does पठसि mean?
3. What does गच्छामि mean?
4. What does नमामि mean?
5. Which means "I chant"?
🪷 Manana
नमामि।
I bow.
One word.
One action.
One intention.
Let the language become an action of the heart.
जपामि।
I chant.
ध्यायामि।
I meditate.
➡️ Next Lesson
We have now seen that a verb can tell us
who is acting.
In the next lesson we will put everything
together through very small sentences:
Who + Action
We will learn how to say:
I read.
You read.
He reads.
We read.
And then we will gently introduce the idea
of person and number.
Begin Lesson 10 →