Upasarga is a term used in Sanskrit grammar for a special class of twenty prepositional particles prefixed to verbs or to action nouns.Monier-Williams, p.210 In Vedic, these prepositions are separable from verbs; in classical Sanskrit the prefixing is obligatory.
The twenty prefixes (in Indic alphabetical order) are recognized in 's at 1.4.58-59,Katre, p.91 and are enumerated in the (#154):Katre, p.1301
ati- "beyond" adhi- "over" apa- "away" api- "proximate" abhi- "to, towards" anu- "after" ava- "off, down" āṅ- "near" ut-/ud- "up(wards)" upa- "towards, near" dus-/dur- "bad, difficult, hard" ni- "down" nis-/nir- "away" parā- "away" pari- "round, around" pra- "forth" prati- "against" vi- "apart, asunder" sam-/saṃ- "with" su- "good, excellent"
By the usual rules of euphonic combination the two prepositions ending in visarga, and , have the alternative forms nis-/nir- and dus-/dur- respectively. The 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:
Notes
References Monier-Williams, M., A Sanskrit English Dictionary, (reprint) New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 2005 Katre, Sumitra M., of Pānini, New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass 1989
External links