Thread by @Sampadananda

Welcome to the 14th session of the #LearnSamskritam through Twitter chats. In this session the focus will be on the classification of the Root-sounds in Sanskrit. 14/1
#SamskritaRootSounds

There are approximately 2000 root-sounds listed by Maharshi Panini which are appended to his book अष्टाध्यायी aṣṭādhyāyī. These root-sounds are classified into ten different groups गणs gaṇas based on the conjugational patterns that the root-sounds follow. 14/2

Each of the ten groups of root-sounds is different from the other group owing to the modification that takes place by many grammatical elements like infixes etc. Here we will discuss about the specialty of each group.14/3

Each of these ten groups is named after the root-sound with which it begins. For example if the group begins with the root-sound दिव् div meaning ‘to play, to shine’ etc. then the name of the group is दिवादिगण divādigaṇa (दिव् आदि गण div ādi gaṇa). 14/4

The ten groups or गणs gaṇas are known as follows:
भ्वादि bhvādi
अदादि adādi
जुहोत्यादि juhotyādi
दिवादि divādi
स्वादि svādi
तुदादि tudādi
रुधादि rudhādi
तनादि tanādi
क्र्यादि kryādi
चुरादि curādi
14/5

The list given above is set into a verse for easy remembrance.
भ्वाद्यदादि: जुहोत्यादिः दिवादिः स्वादिरेव च | तुदादिश्च रुधादिश्च तनादि क्री चुरादयः।।"
bhvādyadādiḥ juhotyādiḥ divādiḥ svādireva ca | tudādiśca rudhādiśca tanādi krī curādayaḥ।।
14/6

भ्वादिगण bhvādigaṇa (भू आदि गण bhū ādi gaṇa)
Out of these ten groups the first group which begins with the root sound भू bhū ‘to be’, has maximum number of roots in its list, and the seventh group which begins with the root sound रुध् rudh ‘to stop’, has the minimum. 14/7

The infix which comes in between the root-sound and the suffix and the modification that takes place because of this are the main elements which make one group different from the other. How this happens is described below. 14/8

The roots of the first group (भ्वादिगण bhvādigaṇa) take the infix शप् śap or अ a. So from the root-sound पठ् paṭh that belongs to the first group one gets पठति paṭhati (पठ् paṭh अ a ति ti) ‘reads’. 14/9

अदादिगण adādigaṇa (अद् आदि गणad ādi gaṇa)
The roots of the second group take the infix शप् śap or अ a, but the अ a disappears physically. So we get from root अद् ad ‘to eat’ (अद् अ ति ad + a + ti) अत्ति atti ‘eats’ not अदति adati 14/10

I stop here today. The description of the specialty of the rest of the eight groups will be taken up in the next session on coming Sunday 28th July. Keep following for the updates. 14/11