[Back to Lessons 13]
बहुव्रीहि compounds
  • A कर्मधारय or तत्पुरुष compound ending in a noun may function as an adjective, qualifying an external noun and agreeing with it in case and gender.
  • Examples:
    • पीतम् अम्बरं यस्‌य सः -> पीताम्बरः
      "He whose clothing is yellow." -> "Yellow-clothes (Viṣṇu)"
    • जितानि इन्द्रयाणि येन सः -> जितेन्द्रयः
      "He by whom the senses are conquered." -> "One who has conquered the senses."
द्विगु compounds
  • The first member is a number.
  • These compounds are not typically used to represent a particular number of something, but rather to denote a well-known set or aggragate, or for the purpose of epithet.
  • The grammatical number is singular regardless of the the numeral involved.
  • Examples:
      त्रिलोकम् ("the three worlds.")
      दश रथा यस्य सः -> दशरथः ("He who has ten chariots.")
Transliterate देवनागरी ⇔ IAST