Lesson 47 ----- The study of Passive Past Participles. | Lesson Index

                                                                  Lesson 47. The study of Passive Past Participles.

Trust that you are now comfortable with the Active Past Participles. Shall we do a quick recall?
अहं बालकं दृष्टवती ।  I saw the boy.
(Please note that in this lesson, i plan to handle just the participles NOT the verb forms...)

 

Now let's first see how the passive structure reads:
The boy was seen by me.
Here the वत् प्रत्यय CANNOT be used . Its presence suggests the past tense BUT in ACTIVE sentence constructions.

 

If you recall, we added the वत् प्रत्यय to the root past participle form...a list of which is up in  Supplement 37....to form the Active Past Participle. We use the same root form but NOW add a visarga OR an आ मात्रा OR a म्  , to denote M, F and N respectively.
The masculine forms will be declined in all the vibhaktis, and numbers as राम
The feminine forms will be declined in all the vibhaktis, and numbers as माला
The neuter forms will be declined in all the vibhaktis, and numbers as वन ।
To make it clearer....
गत becomes गतः, गता, गतम् ।
दृष्ट becomes दृष्टः , दृष्टा , दृष्टम्  ।
THESE, then become the passive past participle forms.

 

 

 

So i would translate "The boy was seen by me" as बालकः मया दृष्टः ।
Let's analyze this sentence a bit.

 

Recall: In a passive sentence, the object now falls into the प्रथमा विभक्तिः ।

 

The subject falls into the तृतीया विभक्तिः  । The verb NOW follows the "object turned subject." Here, the participle "see" now has to follow the "object turned subject." ( The participle acts as a verb, does it not? So it MUST follow the same rules the verb does.)

 

Our Active sentence would have given you a clue to what gender "I" am.
दृष्टवती  is feminine. Now in our Passive construction, since the participle HAS to follow the new subject, it becomes masculine and the sentence reads: बालकाः मया  दृष्टाः । Please recall that our participles are like adjectives and can be M, F or N.

 

Let's have a look at a few more sentences:
I wrote an article. अहं लेखं लिखितवती / अहं लेखं लिखितवान् ।
An article was written by me. मया लेखः लिखितः ।
He wrote a story. सः कथां लिखितवान् ।
A story was written by him. तेन कथा लिखिता ।
She wrote a poem. सा काव्यं लिखितवती ।
A poem was written by her. तया काव्यं लिखितम् ।

 

 

Well, since the participle follows the subject, it doesn't matter who the "actual" doer is..... that doer ALWAYS falls into the tritiya vibhakti and has nothing to do with the participle or the verb. Let's look at another example, this time using the verb form along with the participle to see how much easier the participle usage is.

 

She ate a fruit. सा फलम्  अखादत्  ।
A fruit was eaten by her. तया फलम् अखाद्यत । Here we need to remember the A.P. forms of the past tense . Why not a very simple: तया फलं खादितम् ?
1. He worshipped the Lord. सः देवम् अर्चितवान् ।
   The Lord was worshipped by him. तेन देवः अर्चितः ।
2. She worshipped the Lord. सा देवम् अर्चितवती ।
    The Lord was worshipped by her. तया देवः अर्चितः ।
3. He worshipped the Devi.  सः देवीम् अर्चितवान् ।
    The Devi was worshipped by him. तेन देवी अर्चिता ।
4. She worshipped the Devi. सा देवीम् अर्चितवती ।
    The Devi was worshipped by her. तया देवी अर्चिता ।

 

 

 

What happens to a sentence like : "The mother gave a book to the girl?" Here is how you would make both Active and Passive sentences: अम्बा बालिकायै ग्रन्थं दत्तवती । अम्बया बालिकायै ग्रन्थः दत्तः । ONLY the PRINCIPAL object and subject jump vibhaktis.....the participle naturally follows the "object turned subject" AND the rest of the words in the sentence remain as they are.

 

From the dwitiya onwards, these past participles take on the form of simple adjectives in active voice sentences. Here are a few examples...... see how i have used the various tenses....
1. It is written here.
    अत्र लिखितम् अस्ति ।
2. I will place the cleaned vessels on the table.
   अहं प्रक्षालितानि पात्राणि उत्पीठिकायां स्थापयिष्यामि ।
3. The bloomed lotus was white.
   विकसितं कमलं श्वेतम् आसीत् ।
4. He gave the grain to the irritated brahmin.
   सः कुपिताय ब्राह्मणाय धान्यं दत्तवान् / सः कुपिताय ब्राह्मणाय धान्यम् अयच्छत् ।

 

 

 

The exercises will deal with converting the active into the passive. Lesson 47 C should help you see how the past participles in the rest of the vibhaktis are used.
Honestly, with what we have done this month, it's been a giant leap forward in our understanding of Sanskrit. Next month will be just as enlightening.

                                                                              We go on to the exercises in the next Lesson 47 A

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