(Whitney §294-300)
The sixth (षष्ठ) case is the Genitive. It is often translated as “of” and is generally adjectival in character in that genitives generally qualify nouns. The genitive designates something related to the noun it qualifies, in a relationship determined by the use of the case and context. Genitives can also be used with verbs and prepositions. In fact, in the later language, the use of the genitive has become so extended that it is often used as as substitute for the dative, instrumental, ablative, and locative.
Adjectival Genitive
The adjectival genitive is the most common form and is similar to the English use of the genitive. It can have a variety of meanings from simple possession (“the man’s house”), partitive (“the daughter of the family”), subjective (“a mother‘s love”), and objective (“his fear of the unknown”), and rarely composition (“house of wood”). According to Whitney, genitives of equivalence (“city of Rome”) and characteristic (“man of honor”) do not occur in Sanskrit.
Whitney gives the following examples for the adjectival genitive:
इन्द्रस्य वज्रः
“The vajra of Indra”
पिता पुत्राणाम्
“the father of sons”
पु्त्रः पितुः
“son of the father”
पितुः कामः पुत्रस्य
“the father‘s love of the son”
Genitive with Numbers
In English a number is an adjective that modifies a noun, as in “ten apples”. In Sanskrit this construction is also common. However, another way to express counts is to put the object of the number in the genitive. Thus:
शतम् दासीनाम्
“a hundred female slaves“ (literally, “a hundred of female slaves”)
अशीतेर्नयुतानां देवमानुषिकायाः प्रजायाः
“from eighty myriads of those born with the body of a god or human“ (literally, “from eighty of myriads born bodies of gods and humans”)
Partative Genitive
The “partative” genitive is one expressing part of a whole often used with a superlative or similar type of word and can be translated by “among”. An example is:
श्रेष्ठं वीराणाम्
“best among heroes“
के नः
“which of us”
Adjectives using the Genitive
Adjectives acting like nouns can sometimes take their compliment in the genitive and sometimes can be translated in a way similar to other cases such as the accusative or instrumental, such as in the following examples:
तस्य समः
“same as him“
तस्याऽविदितम्
“unknown by him“
ईप्सितो नरनारीणाम्
“desired by men and women“