Compounds practice (quiz)
Most long Sanskrit words are compounds (samāsa) — and most of what you fail to find in a dictionary is a compound you haven't split. Recognising the type tells you where to split and how to read the result. These 15 questions drill the compound classes and the lookup move, grounded in Lessons 8 & 11 of Charles Wikner's A Practical Sanskrit Introductory and the Reading Monier-Williams guide.
The basics
Quiz · what a samāsa is
1 question
What is a samāsa, and why does it matter for dictionary lookup?
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A samāsa is a compound — two or more words joined into a single word. It matters because most long words you meet are compounds; to look one up you usually split it (and dictionaries list compounds under their first member).
The four classes
dvandva (copulative) · tatpuruṣa (determinative) · bahuvrīhi (possessive) · avyayībhāva (adverbial).
Quiz · compound classes
7 questions
rāmaḥ ca kṛṣṇaḥ ca → rāmakṛṣṇau ("Rāma and Kṛṣṇa"). What type of compound?
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dvandva (copulative). A dvandva joins members that would otherwise be linked by 'and' (ca). Here the members are taken separately (itaretara), so the compound is dual.sukham ca duḥkham ca → sukhaduḥkham, neuter singular ("pleasure and pain"). Which dvandva subtype?
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samāhāra (collective). A samāhāra dvandva takes the members collectively as a unit — always neuter singular; pairs of opposites often take this form. (An itaretara dvandva, by contrast, is dual/plural.)vṛkṣa-mūlam = vṛkṣasya mūlam ("root of a tree, tree-root"). What type?
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tatpuruṣa (determinative). In a tatpuruṣa the first member has a case relationship to the second. Here it's a genitive relation (vṛkṣasya), so a ṣaṣṭhī-tatpuruṣa.padmākṣa describes a person, meaning "whose eyes are like lotuses, lotus-eyed" (padma + akṣa). What type?
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bahuvrīhi (possessive). A bahuvrīhi is exocentric: it forms an adjective describing something OUTSIDE the compound (the lotus-eyed person), not the eyes themselves.What is the key difference between a tatpuruṣa and a bahuvrīhi with the same members (e.g. 'lotus-eye')?
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A tatpuruṣa names the thing itself (padma-akṣa = 'a lotus-eye'); a bahuvrīhi describes a third thing that POSSESSES it (padmākṣa = 'the one whose eyes are lotuses, lotus-eyed') — it agrees with a noun expressed or understood.sa-krodham ("with anger, angrily") is indeclinable and works as an adverb (sa- + krodha). What type?
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avyayībhāva (adverbial). An avyayībhāva is indeclinable (avyaya) and functions as an adverb; first member an indeclinable/prefix, whole in neuter-singular form (cf. yathā-śraddham 'according to one's faith').Name the four main classes of Sanskrit compound.
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dvandva (copulative), tatpuruṣa (determinative — with karmadhāraya/dvigu/etc. as subtypes), bahuvrīhi (possessive/exocentric), and avyayībhāva (indeclinable/adverbial).
Tatpuruṣa subtypes
karmadhāraya, dvigu, upapada, nañ — the determinative family.
Quiz · tatpuruṣa subtypes
5 questions
A tatpuruṣa can be classified by the case relation of its first member. What is vṛkṣamūlam ("tree-root") called, and why?
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A ṣaṣṭhī-tatpuruṣa — because dissolved it is vṛkṣasya mūlam, a genitive (ṣaṣṭhī, 6th-case) relation of the first member to the second.pūrṇa-candraḥ = pūrṇaḥ candraḥ ("full moon") — the members refer to the same object. What subtype?
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karmadhāraya. A karmadhāraya (samānādhikaraṇa-tatpuruṣa) is descriptive: dissolved, both members have the SAME case (refer to one object) — adjective + noun.A descriptive compound (like a karmadhāraya) but whose first member is a numeral or a direction word — e.g. eka-vacana. What is it called?
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dvigu. A dvigu has the karmadhāraya sense but a numeral/direction first member (eka- 'one', dvi- 'two', bahu- 'many').a-jñānam = a- + jñānam ("ignorance") — a negative particle as first member. What subtype?
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nañ-tatpuruṣa. A nañ-tatpuruṣa has a negative/privative particle (na-, an-, a-) as its first member, giving a negative sense.kumbha-kāra ("potter") = kumbha ("pot") + √kṛ ("to make") — the second member is a root-derivative. What subtype?
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upapada. An upapada compound has a dhātu (root) derivative as its second member (here -kāra from √kṛ).
Splitting & looking up
Quiz · finding a compound in the dictionary
2 questions
Where does a dictionary like Monier-Williams list a compound such as buddha-kalpa?
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As a hyphen-led sub-entry inside the paragraph of its first member (here under Buddha) — the third level of MW's alphabetical order. So to find a compound, look under its first word; the leading hyphen also means that element is separately findable.Why is recognising the compound type useful when you can't find a long word in the dictionary?
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It tells you where to split. A tatpuruṣa/karmadhāraya splits between a modifier and head (look up both); a dvandva splits into coordinate members; a bahuvrīhi splits like a tatpuruṣa but is read 'possessing X'. Splitting correctly (undoing sandhi at the seam) lets you look up each member.
See also
- Sandhi practice quiz — undoing the sound-changes at the compound seams
- Reading Monier-Williams — how MW nests compounds as sub-entries