Vedic Sanskrit is the name given by modern scholarship to the oldest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language.
Sanskrit is the language that is found in the four Vedas, in particular, the Rigveda, the oldest of them, dated to have been composed roughly over the period from 1500 to 1000 BCE.
[4][5] Its grammar differs greatly from the later Classical Sanskrit in many regards, one being that this complex inherited morphology simplified over time.
As the popular speech unavoidably evolved over the centuries the Vedic hymns began to be increasingly inaccessible.
[verification needed] Despite these efforts, by the time of Pāṇini's final definition, the language had undergone some changes, especially in grammar.
[9][10][a] Over time, the language that would become Classical Sanskrit reduced and regularized much of the complex morphology that it had originally inherited from its parent the Proto-Indo-European language:[9][11] Declension of a noun in Sanskrit involves the interplay of two 'dimensions': 3 numbers and 8 cases, yielding a combination of 24 possible forms, although owing to syncretism of some forms, the practical number can be lower.
While the same noun cannot be seen to be of more than one gender, adjectives change gender on the basis of the noun they are being applied to, along with case and number, thus giving the following variables:[16][17] dative, ablative, genitive, locative, vocative The oldest system of declension was to affix the endings directly to the nominal root.
However, according to the gender and the final consonant or vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are internal sandhi rules dictating the form of the inflected word.
Known as vṛkī́s feminines,[26] these exhibit different behavior during declension compared to the later language, such as the nominative singular retaining the -s ending, and in the accent staying on the -i-.
[30] The main types of compound-forming were the co-ordinative [α], determinative [β], possessive [γ] and the adverbial [δ].
As a first step, the root may be subject to treatment to form a stem, to which personal endings are suffixed.
The periphrastic perfect is used with causative, desiderative, denominative and roots with prosodic long anlauted vowel (except a/ā).
The sibilant aorist by itself has four formations: The s-future is formed with the inffixion of -syá- or -iṣyá- before the normal present endings and guṇa.
Against the single type of infinitive in the later language, there exist, in Vedic, several forms, all of them being old cases of verbal nouns.
[47][48] The following main types of infinitive can be identified in Vedic, noted in descending order of frequency: The ending used to form this adjective is -e.[i] The ending may be directly added to the root, whether of a simple or compounded verb, or additional elements (-as-, -i, -ti, -tu, -tavā, -tyā, -dhyā, -man, -van) may be interspersed in different cases of roots.
aháṃ sáumam·āhanásam bibʰarmy·ahám·tváṣṭāram·utá pūṣáṇam bʰagám, ahám dadʰāmi dráviṇaṃ havíṣmatai suprāvyài yájamānāya sunvatái.
máyā sáu ánnam·atti yáu vipáśyati yaḥ prā́ṇiti yá īṃ śṛṇáuty·uktám, amántavau mā́m tá úpa kṣiyanti śrudʰí śruta śraddʰiváṃ tai vadāmi.
I roam with the Rudras[BG] and the Vasus, I with the Ādityas and the all-gods, I bear both Mitra and Varuṇa,[BH] I Indra and Agni,[BI] I both the Aśvins.
I bear the swollen soma, I Tvaṣṭar and Pūṣan and Bhaga, I establish wealth for the man offering the oblation, who pursues well, who sacrifices and presses.
I am ruler, assembler of goods, observer foremost among those deserving the sacrifice, Me have the gods distributed in many places – so that I have many stations and cause many things to enter (me).