CHAPTER 7
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Vowel Gradation and Why We Need to Know about It
This chapter explains the systematics of the phenomenon of vowel gradation of which we
caught our first glimpse in Chapter 3. It is meant to help us understand what has been
introduced so far and complete our understanding of it by adding a number of details. It
makes frequent reference to Chapter 2, particularly the sections on complex vowels and
semivowels/glides. You may find it useful to look at those again.
VOWEL GRADATION
In Chapter 4, we saw that Class I verbs are formed in the following way:
Class I: The vowel -a- is added into the root before the root vowel; then -a- is added after
the root.
Examples: √भृ bhṛ ‘to carry’, root vowel: -ṛ-; present stem भर- bhara-
√बुध् budh ‘to awake’, root vowel -u-; present stem बोध- bodha-
The step of adding an -a- before another vowel (in the cases above: before ṛ and u) is part of a
larger system that is known as vowel gradation (or also ablaut). It appears across Sanskrit verbs and
nouns, and works as follows.
In Sanskrit, the simple vowels have three ‘grades’: basic or zero grade, full grade (or to use Sanskrit
terminology, guṇa, literally meaning ‘characteristic’ or ‘quality’) and lengthened grade (or vṛddhi,
meaning ‘growth’). The zero grade consists of just the vowel itself; in guṇa, an -a- is added to it;
in vṛddhi, a long -ā- is added to it.
One good place for looking at this system is in the context of verbal roots. In the different forms of
the verb, all three grades of the vowel in its root (and thus, as we say, all three grades of the root)
can be found. For example, the verbal root meaning ‘to carry’ is √भृ bhṛ. The vowel contained in it
is ṛ. In guṇa, there is an -a- added, giving us भर् bhar (which we know from the present-tense stem
in e.g. the 3rd Sg भरति bharati); in vṛddhi, a long -ā- is added, giving भार् -bhār- (which we will find
e.g. in the perfect tense –› Chapter 28).
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The following table gives an overview of all grades of all vowels:
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Basic or zero Full Lengthened
grade grade/guṇa grade/vṛddhi
ṛ/ṝ ar ār
ḷ al āl
i/ī ay/e āy/ai
u/ū av/o āv/au
- a ā
Vowel grades
ṛ/ṝ and ḷ
After the vowel -a- added in guṇa, the zero-grade vowels ṛ/ṝ and ḷ always turn into their consonantal
counterpart, as e.g. a + ṝ –› ar. (–› Chapter 2 on Semivowels/Glides.)
i/ī and u/ū
The zero-grade vowels i/ī and u/ū turn into glides and appear in guṇa as ay/av and in vṛddhi as
āy/āv when they are followed by a vowel. (–› Chapter 2 on semivowels/glides.) Before consonants,
i/ī and u/ū appear in guṇa as e and o, and in vṛddhi as ai and au, respectively. The following is
happening here: originally, what now appears as e was *ai; what now appears as ai once was *āi.
(–› Chapter 2; the asterisk * is used to indicate a form that is not actually attested, but that we know
existed at some earlier stage in the language.) In front of another vowel, the i in this original *ai and *āi
turns into a -y-, and we thus do not have diphthongs ai and āi any more, but ay and āy instead (e.g. *ai +
a –› aya). Yet whenever a consonant follows, the diphthongs ai and āi are maintained, and at some
point in the history of Sanskrit all instances of ai turned into e and all instances of āi turned into
ai. As a result, we get the odd-looking pairs of prevocalic ay/preconsonantal e, and prevocalic āy/
preconsonantal ai.
The zero grade, guṇa and vṛddhi of i/ī
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The same applies to u: in original guṇa *au and vṛddhi *āu, u turns into a v whenever it is followed
7 by a vowel, giving us av and āv, respectively; yet before consonants, *au and *āu turn into o and
au, respectively.
If you find this explanation helpful, remember it. If not, simply memorise the patterns of
zero-grade i/ī – guṇa ay or e – vṛddhi āy or ai and u/ū – av or o – āv or au. They will reoccur
frequently.
a
Note that although a counts as a ‘simple’ vowel, it does not appear among the other simple vowels in
the left-hand column of the table. This is because the zero grade of verbal roots is characterised by
an absence of -a-, which is only added in guṇa and vṛddhi. (The zero grade has zero -a-, so to speak.)
Difference in Vowel Grade vs. Difference in Meaning
As was stated just above, different forms of the verb are associated with different grades
of the root vowel. Yet in themselves, the different grades of a vowel do not carry any
difference in meaning. There once were factors in the language (specifically, accents
and their movement) that caused this difference in root grades mentioned above. These
determined that, for example, the zero grade of the root vowel is found in the past
participle (Chapter 8), or that some nouns have ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ stems (e.g. Chapter 25).
Something similar may be observed in English: verbs such as leave, weep, lead etc. have
a long vowel in their present tense form and a short vowel in their past tense form (left,
wept, led). Here, too, these short-vowel forms are associated with the past tense, yet there
is nothing inherently ‘past’ in any short vowel as such.
APPLICATIONS
Knowledge of vowel gradation helps us understand how the sanskrit verbal system works.
It is up to you to what extent you wish to simply memorise the facts introduced below,
or to try to understand the system underlying them. This applies especially to sections
c) and d). Just as a s tudent of English may memorise the forms sing, sang, sung without
questioning the system behind them, so the student of Sanskrit may just memorise that
the present tense of √नी nī ‘to lead’ (Class I) is नयति nayati, or that √पत् pat ‘to fall, to fly’
(also Class I) is पतति patati (without the addition of an a into the root to form the stem,
as one might expect). Yet, as there is a system behind all these things, this system will be
explained here for anyone who finds it useful.
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a) Verb Classes
The different verb classes are distinguished from one another not just by what is added after the 7
verbal root, but also by what grade the root stands in. To systematise what was introduced in
Chapter 4:
Class I Present Stem: The root stands in guṇa; -a- is added after it. √भृ bhṛ ‘to carry’ –›
भर- bhara-
Class IV Present Stem: The root stands in zero grade; -ya- is added after it. √हृष् hṛṣ ‘to
rejoice’ –› हृष्य- hṛṣya-
Class VI Present Stem: The root stands in zero grade; -a- is added after it. √विश् viś ‘to en-
ter’ –› विश- viśa-
b) Class X Presents
Understanding vowel gradation also allows us to introduce Class X present stems:
Class X: The root stands in zero grade, guṇa or vṛddhi; -aya- is added after it.
Examples: √चिन्त् cint ‘to worry’ –› चिन्तय- cintaya- –› चिन्तयति cintayati ‘he worries’
√कथ् kath ‘to tell’ –› कथय- kathaya- –› कथयति kathayati ‘he tells’
√चुर् cur ‘to steal’ –› चोरय- coraya- –› चोरयति corayati ‘he steals’
√क्षल् kṣal ‘to wash’ –› क्षालय- kṣālaya- –› क्षालयति kṣālayati ‘he washes’
The choice of stem-vowel grade in Class X stems usually depends on whatever creates a
long/heavy syllable: roots that in their zero grade contain i or u followed by a consonant
only need to go as far as guṇa to contain a long vowel (e or o, respectively), while verbs
whose roots end in a vowel (see c) below), or which follow the pattern zero – a – ā
contain a long vowel only in vṛddhi.
Many verbs that have Class X present tense forms are ‘denominal’ verbs, meaning they
are based on nouns. Nouns such as कथा kathā ‘story’ or चिन्ता cintā ‘worry, thought’ (–›
Chapter 9) are taken, often without their final vowel, and the suffix -aya- and personal
endings are added to them. In denominal verbs, thus, the ‘grade’ in which the stem
appears is simply the form of the basic noun; –› √कथ् kath –› कथयति kathayati ‘he tells,
talks about’ or √चिन्त् cint –› चिन्तयति cintayati ‘he worries; he thinks’.
c) Causatives
The two steps to create a Class X present stem (strengthening the verbal root to contain a heavy
syllable and adding -aya-) can also be applied to verbs from other classes. This process then creates
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causative verbs. Causatives denote not just ‘doing x’ but ‘causing (someone) to do x’, ‘making/
7 having (someone) do x’. For example:
√विश् viś ‘to enter’ –› वेशयति veśayati ‘he causes (someone) to enter’
√दृश् dṛś ‘to see’ –› दर्शयति darśayati ‘he makes (someone) see’, thus ‘he shows’
√भृ bhṛ ‘to carry’ –› भारयति bhārayati ‘he makes (someone) carry’
Roots that end in -ā form their causative by inserting -p- before the -aya-:
√स्था sthā ‘to stand’ –› स्था
पयति sthāpayati ‘he causes (someone) to stand, positions
(someone)’
Note that in the causative, the formal changes that the verbal stem undergoes are linked to a change
in meaning. This process is thus different from the formation of present stems of the different verb
classes, where the formal changes (such as adding -a- or -ya-) do not affect the meaning of the verb.
Causatives and Class X verbs overlap in their origins, and no causatives are formed of
Class X verbs; if necessary, a verb with a similar meaning can be taken, and a causative of
that formed.
d) Verbal Roots Ending in a Vowel
Roots containing i/ī or u/ū followed by a consonant display guṇa e or o, as in e.g. √शुच् śuc –› शोचति
śocati. Yet the guṇa of roots that end in i/ī or u/ū does not contain such an e or o: √नी nī ‘to lead’,
√द्रु dru ‘to run’ and √भू bhū ‘to be’ are all Class I; their present tense forms are नयति nayati, द्रवति
dravati and भवति bhavati. The following has happened here: we know that the guṇa e goes back to
an original ai. Yet the development from ai to e actually took place only if a consonant followed. If a
vowel follows, i/ī and u/ū behave exactly like ṛ/ṝ and ḷ: they turn into their respective glides, namely
-y- and -v-, resulting in the guṇa forms -ay- and -av- and thus verbal forms such as नयति nayati,
द्रवति dravati, and so on. (To put this more systematically: original *ai/*au change into e/o before
a consonant, but into ay/av in front of another vowel. Original *āi/*āu change into ai/au before a
consonant, but into āy/āv in front of another vowel.)
e) Verbal Roots Cited in Guṇa
Verbal roots are usually cited in their most basic form, i.e. zero grade, whenever they are discussed
or listed in a dictionary or other kind of vocabulary list. (Look at the vocabulary at the end of
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hapter 4 for some examples.) From this basic form, all other forms of the root can be inferred:
C
adding -a- before the root vowel results in guṇa, adding -ā- in that same place results in vṛddhi. Yet 7
there are a number of roots that do not follow this pattern.
Some verbs add a/ā not before, but after the zero-grade vowel. For example, in its zero grade, the
root of one of the Sanskrit verbs meaning ‘to speak, to say’ is √उद् ud. This verb is Class I, hence we
would expect its present tense stem to be +ओद- oda- (with a added before zero-grade u, and with
original +auda changing into +oda). Yet its actual present tense stem is वद- vada-: the guṇa -a- is
added not before, but after the zero-grade vowel -u-, which accordingly changes into -v- before the
vowel that now follows.
Just from looking at a zero-grade root, we cannot infer whether it will add guṇa -a- (and vṛddhi -ā-)
before or after its zero-grade vowel. Roots that do not follow the regular pattern (guṇa or vṛddhi
vowel added before the root vowel) are thus conventionally listed in guṇa: from guṇa vad, one can
arrive at both the zero grade (ud) and vṛddhi (vād) forms of this root. Thus it is always listed as
√vad, never as +√ud. To give more examples:
√वच् vac ‘to speak’: zero grade उच् uc, vṛddhi वाच् vāc
√स्वप् svap ‘to sleep’: zero grade सुप् sup, vṛddhi स्वाप् svāp
√यज् yaj ‘to offer, sacrifice’: zero grade इज् ij, vṛddhi याज् yāj
√रक्ष् rakṣ ‘to protect’: zero grade ऋक्ष् ṛkṣ, vṛddhi राक्ष् rākṣ
Remember that in the zero grade of such verbs, what appears as y- and v- before vowels turns into
i- and u-, respectively, in front of a consonant. This may make the zero-grade forms difficult to
recognise.
Roots ending in a nasal are also always cited in guṇa rather than in zero grade. The zero-grade
forms of e.g. √गम् gam ‘to go’ or √मन् man ‘to think’ are gm and mn; yet they rarely ever appear as
that. A consonant follows in almost all instances in which the zero-grade root is used, and between
consonants nasals change into -a-. Thus, the zero-grade roots usually appear as ga and ma. Yet on
the basis of the zero grades ga and ma, we are not able to infer the actual correct guṇa and vṛddhi,
gam/man and gām/mān. Thus such roots are also cited in guṇa.
Zero-grade forms of the type ga or ma complicate our table of vowel grades as they create roots
with the pattern zero grade -a-, guṇa -a-, vṛddhi -ā-. If you prefer, remember this pattern (which is
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what you actually see in most verb forms) rather than the system of zero – a – ā (which represents
7 the underlying system). The following table gives an overview of the different grades of √गम् gam.
Zero grade Full grade Lengthened grade
gm gam gām
infrequent: when vowel follows
ga gam gām
frequent: when consonant follows
Remember that nasals between consonants change into -a-.
This is a process you will encounter in Sanskrit with some frequency.
The last group of roots to be listed in guṇa are those whose zero grade is never actually used in any
verb form (such as √पत् pat ‘to fall, fly’).
Briefly put, whenever the zero grade does not allow us to infer the forms of guṇa and vṛddhi, a
verbal root will be cited in guṇa. Thus, if a root is listed in a form that contains an -a-, you know
that it stands in full grade and that the -a- needs to be removed to get to the zero grade. If a root
is listed containing any other vowel (i/ī, u/ū, ṛ/ṝ, ḷ), you know that -a- and -ā- need to be added in
front of that vowel to form guṇa and vṛddhi.
THE NUTSHELL: VOWEL GRADATION
– There are three vowel grades: basic/zero, full (guṇa) and lengthened (vṛddhi).
The zero grade includes just the vowel itself.
Guṇa adds an -a-.
Vṛddhi adds an -ā-.
– A verbal root whose vowel is in zero grade is said to stand in zero grade itself, etc.
– Standardly, verbal roots are listed in their zero-grade form. If their other grades cannot
be inferred from the zero grade, or the zero grade is never actually used, the full-grade
form is listed (–› √वच् vac, √यज् yaj, √गम् gam, √पत् pat).
Class X verbs Causatives
Formation: verbal root in zero grade guṇa or Formation: verbal root in guṇa or vṛddhi,
vṛddhi, add -aya-. add -aya-.
Example: √चुर् cur ‘to steal’ –› चोरयति corayati Example: √भृ bhṛ –› भारयति bhārayati
‘he steals’. ‘he causes to carry’.
Just another verb class. Not another verb class, but a secondary forma-
tion that effects a change in meaning.
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