Past Participles

Hart, Lesson 26, pp. 128-133

In Sanskrit there are past passive participles and past active participles. In English, an example of the former is, “The book written by him…” but there is no real equivalent to the past active participle in English.

Two saṃdhi rules are important in the formation of past participles. Rule 36 is that a voiced aspirate followed by an unvoiced character becomes voiced non-aspirate plus a voiced aspirate, so that बुध् + त becomes बुद्ध, and rule 37 is that a dental त becomes retroflexed after a retroflex ष, so that तुष् + त becomes तुष्ट.

Formation of Past Participle

Formation of the Past Passive Participle

The past passive participle is made by adding a specific ending to the unstrengthened root. There are 3 different endings used for the past passive participle. Each verb uses only one of the endings: –त, –इत, or –न. The past passive participle is always declined like देव, फलम्, and सेना.

1. Adding –त to the unstrengthened root. In such cases, the final consonants of the roots are changed according to the following rules:

• च → क (e.g., सिच्, to moisten → सिक्त)
• छ → ष (e.g., प्रच्छ् → पृष्ट)
• ज → क or ष (e.g., त्यज् → त्यक्त and सृज् → सृष्ट)
• श → ष (e.g., नश् → नष्ट and दृश् → दृष्ट)
• ष is unchanged (e.g., तुष् → तुष्ट)
• ह → घ (e.g., दुह् → दुग्ध and दह् → दग्ध)
• Or, ह combines with त to become ढ (e.g., लिह्, to lick → लीढ)

The form of the root to which –त is added is the same as the form used for the passive. Thus, a penultimate nasal is dropped (शंस् → शस्त), and saṃprasāraṇa takes places (वच् → उक्त, यज् → इष्ट, and प्रच्छ् → पृष्ट). In some verbs, आ is weakened to इ (which is not like the passive). Thus, स्था → स्थित. In many roots, –अम् → –अ (गम् → गत, यम् → यत, etc.).

2. Adding –इत to the unstrengthened root. All verbs that make their present using –अय– use this ending to make their past passive participle. That is, all 10^th class verbs and all causatives of any class. For these verbs, –इत is added to same stem that the –अय– would be added to. Thus, चुर् → चोरित and the causative past passive participle of मृ → मारित.

• Other verbs that use the –इत ending are: पत् → पतित, वस् → उषित, लिख् → लिखित, वद् → उदित, and ग्रह् → गृहित.
• Also roots ending in –ख्, –ट्, –ठ्, –ड्, –थ्, and –फ् use this ending.

3. Adding –न to the unstrengthened root. The following verbs fall in this category:

• Certain roots in –आ and in –ई, –ऊ, and –ऐ. Thus, हा → हीन, म्लै → म्लान, क्षि → क्षीण, लू → लून।
• Roots in –ऋ add –न to the same stem used to form the passive. Thus, कॄ → किर्ण, तॄ → तीर्ण, पॄ → पूर्ण
• A few roots in –ज् which becomes –ग् before –न. Thus, भज् (share) → भग्न, भुज् (bend) → भुग्न, मज्ज् (sink) → मग्न, and लग् (attach) → लग्न
• Some roots in –द् which becomes न् before न. Thus, सद् (settle down) → सन्न, भिद् (cut) → भिन्न।

Formation of the Past Active Participle

The past active participle is formed simply by adding –वन्त् to the past passive participle. It is declined like धनवन्त्, not like present active participles. This means that the first person singular of a past, active participle ends in –आन् and not –अन्. Thus, the first person singular for the past, active participle of अधी is अधीतवान्. A past active participle causative may also be formed by adding –वन्त् to the past passive causative participle. (Hart, p. 133)

Examples of Past Participles

These examples are taken from Hart, pp. 130-131.

Root	Past Pass. Participle	Past Pass. Part. Causative	Past Active Participle
अधी	अधीत	अध्यापित	अधीतवन्त्
अस्	none	none	none
आप्	आप्त	आपित	आप्तवन्त्
आस्	आसित	आसित	आसितवन्त्
इ	इत	none	इतवन्त्
कृ	कृत	कारित	कृतवन्त्
कृष्	कृष्ट	कर्षित	कृष्टवन्त्
कॢप्	कॢप्त	कल्पित	कॢप्तवन्त्
क्री	क्रीत	क्रापित	क्रीतवन्त्
क्रीड्	क्रीडित	क्रीडिता	क्रीडितावन्त्
गम्	गत	गमित	गतवन्त्
ग्रह्	गृहीत	ग्राहित	गृहीतवन्त्
चुर्	चोरित	चोरित	चोरितवन्त्
जन्	जात	जनित	[जातवन्त्]
जी	जित	जापित	जितवन्त्
जीव्	जीवित	जीवित	जीवितवन्त्
ज्ञा	ज्ञात	ज्ञाप्त	ज्ञातवन्त्
त्यज्	त्यक्त	त्याजित	त्यक्तवान्त्
दह्	दग्ध	दाहित	दग्धवन्त्
दा	दत्त	दापित	दत्तवन्त्
धाव्	धावित	धावित	धावितवन्त्
नश्	नष्ट	नाशित	नष्टवन्त्
नी	नीत	नायित	नीतवन्त्
पठ्	पठित	पाठित	पठितवन्त्
पश्	दृष्ट	दर्शित	दृष्टवन्त्
पा	पीत	पायित	पीतवन्त्
पीड्	पीडित	पीडित	पीडितवन्त्
प्रच्छ्	पृष्ट	प्रच्छित	पृष्टवन्त्
ब्रू	none	none	none
भू	भुत	भावित	[भूतवन्त्]
भृ	भृत	भारित	भृतवन्त्
मन्	मत	मानित	मतवन्त्
मुच्	मुक्त	मुञ्चित	मक्तवन्त्
मृ	मृत	मारित	मृतवन्त्
यम्	यत	यमित	यतवन्त्
लभ्‌	लब्ध	लम्भित	लब्धवन्त्
लिख्	लिखित	लेखित	लिखितवन्त्
वच्	उक्त	वाचित	उक्तवन्त्
वद्	उदित	वादित	उदितवन्त्
वस्	उषित	वासित	उषितवन्त्
वह्	ऊढ	वाहित	ऊढवन्त्
विद्	none	none	none
विधा	विहित	विधापित	विहितवन्त्
विश्	विष्ट	वेशित	विष्टवन्त्
वृत्	वृत्त	वर्तित	[वृत्तवन्त्]
वृध्	वृद्ध	वर्धित	[वृद्धवन्त्]
शंस्	शस्त	शंसित	शस्तवन्त्
श्रु	श्रुत	स्रावित	स्रुतवन्त्
सेव्	सेवित	सेवित	सेवितवन्त्
स्था	स्थित	स्थापित	स्थितवन्त्
स्पृश्	स्पृष्ट	स्पर्शित	स्पृष्टवन्त्
स्मृ	स्मृत	स्मारित	स्मृतवन्त्
हन्	हत	घातित	हतवन्त्
हा	हीन	हापित	हीनवन्त्

Use of the Past Participle

The passive past participle corresponds to the English past passive participle which usually ends with a “-ed” or “-en”, as in “received” or “given.” It may be used as a simple adjective, that agrees with its nouns. Thus, राज्ञा दत्तं धनम् (the money given by the king). The same thing could be expressed as a compound. So, राजदत्तं धनम्.

The past participle is often used instead of a finite verb. This became used more and more over time. There are two types of this construction: one where the past passive participle modifies and agrees with the subject and the word “is” is supplied, and the other impersonal form where the past passive participle is in the neuter singular nominative. The latter is equivalent to the bhāve construction. Examples of each are:

• वीरो राज्ञा हतः [आसीत्]। (“The hero [was] killed by the king.”)¹
• इति तेनोक्तं [आसीत्]। (“Thus it was said by him.”)

In general, the past passive participle is translated as a passive, but it can be translated in a more active sense with verbs implying motion, being (स्था, आस्, वस्, जन्), and most intransitive verbs. Thus,

• स तत्र गतः। (“He went there.”)
• सा तत्रासिता। (“She sat there.”)
• पुत्रो जातः। (“A son has been born.”)

Past passive participles ending in –त are sometimes used as neuter abstract nouns, in which case they are declined like फलम्:

• जीवितम् (life)
• हसितम् (laugh)

Past passive participles with an active sense may also be used as nouns:

• वृद्ध (“an old person”)
• मृत (“a corpse”)

When used as the first element in a bahuvrīhi, the compound is translated as “by whom/by which B is A-ed”

• हतगज (“by whom an elephant has been killed.”)
• वृद्धपुत्र (“whose sons are grown”)

Past Active Participle

The past active participle has no english equivalent. It can be translated by an adjectival relative clause in which the verb is active and past like समारितवन्त् “he who remembered” or कृतवान् “he who did.” It can be used as an adjective. But the most common use is as a past active finite verb: स तदुक्तवान् “he said that.” The same idea may be expressed with the past passive participle by: तदुक्तं तेन “that was said by him.”