Upasarga facts for kids
Upasarga is a term used in Sanskrit grammar for a special class of twenty prepositional particles prefixed to verbs or to action nouns. In Vedic, these prepositions are separable from verbs; in classical Sanskrit the prefixing is obligatory.
The twenty prefixes are recognized in Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī at 1.4.58-59, and are enumerated in the gaṇapāṭha (#154):
- pra- "forth"
- parā- "away"
- apa- "away"
- sam- "with"
- ata- "before"
- antara- between
- anu- "after"
- ava- "off, down"
- niḥ- "away"
- duḥ- "bad, difficult, hard"
- vi- "apart, asunder"
- ā- "near"
- ni- "down"
- adhi- "over"
- api- "proximate"
- ati- "beyond"
- su- "good, excellent"
- ut- "up(wards)"
- abhi- "to, towards"
- prati- "against"
- pari- "round, around"
- upa- "towards, near"
By the usual rules of euphonic combination the two prepositions ending in visarga, niḥ and duḥ, have the alternative forms nis-/nir- and dus-/dur- respectively. The gaṇapāṭha listing has these variants, not the forms in pausa, and thus has twenty-two items in all.
A versified form of this list may be found in modern primers or textbooks:
praparāpasamanvavanirdurabhivyadhisūdatinipratiparyapayaḥ
upāṅiti viṃsatir eṣa sakhe upasargavidhiḥ kathitaḥ kavinā
- Monier-Williams, M., A Sanskrit English Dictionary, (reprint) New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 2005
- Katre, Sumitra M., Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pānini, New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 1989
