Exercises: Gerunds

Vocabulary

First, here are two new verb prefixes for you. These prefixes are most often used with nouns and adjectives.

Good and Bad

सु

su

 

everything good (virtuous, beautiful, easy, well, …) [eu-phemism, eu-phoria]

दुस्

dus

 

everything bad (evil, inferior, difficult, …) [dys-entery, dys-lexia]

Duryodhana

युध्

yudh

युध्यति

yudhyati

fight, wage war

योधन

yodhana

n

act of fighting, war

दुर्योधन

duryodhana

m

difficult in battle (i.e. difficult to conquer); Duryodhana

Many take the name to mean "poor in battle," but I think that's unlikely. What king would give his son such an inappropriate name? And what son would accept it?

सुयोधन

suyodhana

m

excellent in battle; a kinder name for Duryodhana

Roots from other classes

The words formed from the verbs below — especially kṛ and i — are common in many contexts, and for that reason it's difficult to give a single definition for each one. The definitions below are the most common.

कृ

kṛ

???

do, make, cause

कर

kara

m

doer, maker, causer; a hand

कार

kāra

m

doer, maker; a term used to mark letters

Just as the word varga is used to mark a class of consonants — pavarga, for instance, refers to pa, pha, ba, bha, and ma — the word kāra refers to a single letter. So, kakāra refers to just the consonant sound k. The grammarian Panini refers to the different sorts of verbs with terms that start with l, and for that reason the set of verb types is often called lakāra.

ओंकार

oṃkāra

m

The sound of om (ॐ)

करण

karaṇa

n

doing, making, causing; mind, heart, body

Translation

Translate from English to Sanskrit. Use the provided roots in your translation, and use tatpurusha compounds where they make sense. Each translation will have one gerund and one regular verb. Roots that end in consonants usually use itvā, unless the root follows one of the rules we discussed in the lesson.

• Having done (kṛ) war, Duroyadhana dies (vi-gam).
• Arjuna, after becoming (bhū) a man, stays (vṛt) in the city.
• The elephants come together (sam-i) then fight (yudh).
• The master, having created (kṛ) the Ramayana in the forest, is blissful (nand).
• Having obtained (labh) the white horses with Krishna, we do not die (mṛ) in battle.
• The heroes awaken (budh) then speak (bhāṣ) for the boy.
• Having thus grieved (śuc), the son of Arjuna walks (car) to the black trees.
• O heroes, our black elephant is coming (ā-gam) after filling (pṝ) his trunk with water.

Answers

Translation

• योधनं कृत्वा दुर्योधनो विगच्छति

  yodhanaṃ kṛtvā duryodhano vigacchati

• अर्जुनो नरो भूत्वा नगरं वर्तते

  arjuno naro bhūtvā nagaraṃ vartate

• गजा समित्य युध्यन्ति

  gajā samitya yudhyanti

• आचार्यो वने रामायणं कृत्वा नन्दति

  ācāryo vane rāmāyaṇaṃ kṛtvā nandati

  Note that the tatpurusha would not make sense here, for two reasons. First, the word vana is in case 7 (the "in" case), and we have only studied case 1 and case 6 tatpurusha compounds. Second, the sentence would mean the same thing as "Having completed the forest Ramayana," but there is no such thing as a "forest Ramayana." If you are still having trouble with this, try comparing "He killed the king in the restaurant" to "He killed the restaurant king."

• कृष्णेन श्वेताश्वान् लब्ध्वा न योधने म्रियामहे

  kṛṣṇena śvetāśvān labdhvā na yodhane mriyāmahe

• वीरा बुद्ध्वा बालाय भाषन्ते

  vīrā buddhvā bālāya bhāṣante

• इति शुचित्वार्जुनपुत्रः कृष्णवृक्षाञ् चरति

  iti śucitvārjunaputraḥ kṛṣṇavṛkṣāñ carati

• वीरा अस्माकं कृष्णगजः करं जलेन पूर्त्वागच्छति

  vīrā asmākaṃ kṛṣṇagajaḥ karaṃ jalena pūrtvāgacchati