Dhātukārikā - A brief introduction

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For any serious student of samskṛtam there comes a time when it becomes absolutely necessary to know dhātus. A major part of the words used in samskṛtam can be traced to dhātus and knowing dhātus can lead to quicker understanding about the meanings / possibilities of a word.

Pāṇini muni not only gave us the aṣṭādhyāyī, he also gave us the dhātupāṭha i.e. the compilation of dhātus. It used to be taught through the guruśiṣya-paramparā. But learning dhātus in that way is difficult unless one starts quite young.

For the convenience of learners who find the dhātupāṭha "dry", there have been efforts to make them into kārikās (metrical expositions). Rendering the dhātupāṭha into a kārikā makes it easy for everyone to memorize.

There are kārikās written by Śrī Pullela Ramachandrudu and Śrī Brahmānanda Tripāṭhi in the last century. Pullela's kārikā is mellifluous and seems to have the same style as that of Śrīkaṇṭha (described later). Brahmānanda Tripāṭhi has made his kārikā more utilitarian by grouping dhātus according to meaning. 

A kārikā work a bit older to the above two is by Śrīkaṇṭha Śāstri of Chāmarājanagara. Śrīkaṇṭha seems to go the extra mile to help the student. He also makes the kārikā follow the prototype of Amara (tvantāthādi na pūrvabhāk). In the coming days and weeks this blog will carry the Dhātukārikā of Śrīkaṇṭha uploaded here after fixing typographical errors in the two versions available with me -
1. Version keyed in by the Sansknet team available online.
2. Version available in the volume 1 of the book, "Dhāturūpaprakāshikā" published by Vyoma Linguistic Labs for Datta Ashrama.

I pray to bhagavān that this be useful to all students of Veda, Vedānta, kāvya and so on.

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