Case 5: "from"

Also known as: ablative case, pañcamī vibhakti ("fifth case")

Definition

Case 5 was first introduced as a word meaning something like "from." Unlike the other cases, case 5 cannot be cleanly mapped to an English word, or at least not as elegantly as case 3 and case 4. Case 5 represents the abstract idea of movement away from something, and it can be translated by three different English words: "from," "than," and "because."

First, "from." When used with a verb that describes movement, this new case defines the object that is left behind.

• नरो वनात् चरति

  naro vanāt carati

  The man walks (away) from the forest.

• अश्वा गच्छन्ति वीरात्

  aśvā gacchanti vīrāt

  The horses go (away) from the hero.

Second, "than." This meaning mostly appears in verbless sentences, and it defines the object that is used in the comparison.

• सिंहो गजात् सुन्दरः

  siṃho gajāt sundaraḥ

  The lion is (more) beautiful than the elephant.

Third, "because." This meaning appears when the noun in case 5 is an emotion or abstract idea.

• भ्रमन्ति सुखात्

  bhramanti sukhāt

  They wander because of their happiness.

When we talked about the object case, I mentioned that English uses an explicit object case in just a few places. In English, "from"-case inflection is much rarer. The words "hence," "thence," and "whence" — meaning "from here," "from there," and "from where," respectively — all express the idea of movement "from" something, although historically they are from the "of" case. "Hence" is used today in the sense of "therefore" or "as a result." "Whence" is much rarer, and it is used in expressions like Whence do you come? "Thence" has essentially disappeared.

Inflection

Note that case 3, case 4, and case 5 all have the same dual form. Also note that case 4 and case 5 have the same plural form. All Sanskrit nouns will follow that pattern, and some Sanskrit pronouns will follow it too.

-t Sandhi in more detail

In the lesson on the neuter gender, we discussed only a few of the sandhi rules that the neuter tad pronoun follows. Here, we'll study those rules in more detail.

First, recall these general rules:

• वनात् आगच्छन्ति → वनाद् आगच्छन्ति

  vanāt āgacchanti → vanād āgacchanti

  They come from the forest.

• सुखात् वदति → सुखाद् वदति

  sukhāt vadati → sukhād vadati

  He speaks because of (his) happiness.

• सुखात् नन्दन्ति → सुखान् नन्दन्ति

  sukhāt nandanti → sukhān nandanti

  They rejoice from (their) happiness.

Recall, too, this specific rule for words that end in -t:

Final t takes the point of pronunciation of the stop that follows it, as long as the stop is not in kavarga or pavarga.

• क्षेत्रात् चरति → क्षेत्राच् चरति

  kṣetrāt carati → kṣetrāc carati

  He walks from the forest.

• वनात् जयन्ति → वनाच् जयन्ति → वनाज् जयन्ति

  vanāt jayanti → vanāc jayanti → vanāj jayanti

  They conquer from the forest.

Now we can discuss the other rules that apply to words that end in -t:

t → l

In external sandhi, t is very flexible. It can even become a semivowel:

t becomes l when followed by l.

• सुखात् लिखति → सुखाल् लिखति

  sukhāt likhati → sukhāl likhati

  He writes from (his) happiness.

Extra changes

Words that end in t follow two other rules. These changes may seem a little odd at first. But, they become extremely simple when studied more closely. Here is the first rule:

When followed by ś, t becomes c and ś becomes ch.

• दुःखात् शोचति → सुखाच् छोचति

  duḥkhāt śocati → duḥkhāc chocati

  He grieves from unhappiness.

Before we study that rule, let's study one more rule for comparison:

ch, when it follows a short vowel, almost always becomes cch.

• प्रछ् → पृछ् + अ + ति → पृच्छति

  prach → pṛch + a + ti → pṛcchati

  He asks.

The two rules both follow this more fundamental principle:

ch and tś are, essentially, the same sound. But, both of them are written as ch.

This principle elegantly combines the two rules into one. Since tś is pronounced almost like ch, it makes sense that t + ś will become ch. Since tś will always make the syllable in front of it heavy, it makes sense that ch will do the same thing; but since ch is a single consonant in Devanagari, the only way to express that behavior is to write ch as cch.

Now, here's the second rule:

When followed by h, t becomes d and h becomes dh.

• सुखात् हसति → सुखाद् हसति → सुखाद् धसति

  sukhāt hasati → sukhād hasati → sukhād dhasati

  He smiles from happiness.

This rule is more straightforward. h is a voiced sound, and it makes the letter in front of it become voiced. So, we have d h. This combination is pronounced exactly like ddh, and that is how the combination is written.

Pronouns

For mad and tvad, note that the case 5 plural uses the same ending as the case 5 singular. As usual, tad closely matches the regular noun endings.

Suffixes: "More" and "Most

So far, we've studied how to say things like "This fruit is blue" or "this horse is black." But how do we show that one thing is more black than something else? To do so, we use two new secondary suffixes: tara and tama. Note the similarity between the English "er" suffix, as in "greater," and the Sanskrit tara suffix.

• प्रिय → प्रियतर, प्रियतम

  priya → priyatara, priyatama

  dear → dearer, dearest

Two related and rarer suffixes are ra and ma, which are often — but not always — used as abbreviated versions of tara and tama.

ra and tara are directly releated to the "-er" suffix we have in English, as in "greater."