Lesson 21 B. Classy Classifications.  The Story of Panini. Part 2.
 
Ditto instructions as given in Lesson 21 A: Read only Lesson...

P.P., A.P. and U.P.....Going through his treasure house of verbs, Panini noticed how some verbs were conjugated very simply.... वद् - वदति, पठ् – पठति, खाद् – खादति, सेव्  - सेवति, to serve, लभ् - लभते to obtain ....and some just went bonkers and avatarofied into  कथ् - कथयति, पूज् - पूजयति , or worse अश् - अश्नाति" to eat.
 
Since he had already begun classifying, he decided to go all the way. What's another ten groups or so?! The परस्मैपद, the आत्मनेपद ¸ and the उभयपद then got further classified into ten groups. The groups are called गण s.
 
All verbs that were conjugated similarly got put together into one गण.
Each गण contained P.P., A.P. and U.P. verbs. Those that were very simply conjugated with the endings ति or ते or both, were put into the first गण. Those that needed other letters like ना (which, by the way, are called विकरण s .These विकरण s are letters that are added in the middle of a word ... after the  धातु and before the addition of the ति or ते ... like our (अश् – अश्नाति) were put into another. Those that needed an अय (another विकरण), into still another....and so on and so forth till all the over 2000 verbs (Yipes!!) that he had collected during his nationwide tour, fit snugly into some category or the other.
Each गण was named after its most famous and thoroughly used धातु. And each गण had a set of rules which all the धातु s in that गण faithfully followed. Let's get into the गण and their names and other details at a later date. (I heard you say "Phew!"...don't deny it now!)
The whole idea was this: whenever some east district-ite visited a north district-ite, and wanted to use a rare verb, he'd simply mention the name of the गण to which his verb belonged and hey presto! every person knew how to conjugate the newly heard verb in its various tenses and moods....the लकार s. (There are ten of those too, but we need to be familiar with just five....the present tense, the past tense, the future tense and the imperative and potential mood.  Thank you, Lord, for small mercies.)

Then with this monumental work complete, our man rested.
 
And so will we. At least, for today. (Thought it was time that i put all my cards on the table.) With Lesson 22, we will begin with the  A.P. verbs in the present tense...that is, if you are still with me.
Good News: We do not have to learn more than 2000 verbs! There are many verbs that mean the same.....we can always use सः खादति instead of सः अश्नाति can't we?
 
Better news : With 1010 verbs in the first गण itself , we can find verbs to describe just about any action in that one itself. So all we do is get friendly with the 1st गण.
 
Better news (50-50): The 4th, the 6th and the 10th गण are also conjugated like the 1st गण.
Almost But Not Quite Good News : Can't neglect that lot then.

Best news: The reason we need to be familiar ( we needn't be pundits) with all this stuff is that whenever we come across an unknown conjugated verb or a declined noun in texts of any kind,  we will at least have the capacity to extricate the root word from it and then check a dictionary for its meaning.
 

     Do i hear a," How in the world will i manage to handle all this?"
     Cast that thought outta your minds-
     It'll be a breeze, you'll see!
     For why do you worry, my dear dear one,

When, अत्र अहम् अस्मि ? !! 

                                                                          We go ahead to learn to formulate a Verb form in Lesson 22

 
                                  
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