Sanskrit conjugates its verbs through a system of lakāra (लकार), a set of paradigms that together cover all tenses and moods. The name comes from the fact that each paradigm is identified by a label beginning with the letter l in Pāṇini's grammar. Classical Sanskrit recognises ten lakāras.
The Ten Lakaras
The ten lakāras divide into four temporal areas (present, past, future, and modal forms):
Present-tense set
- Laṭ (लट्) — Present indicative. Rāmaḥ paṭhati (रामः पठति, "Rāma reads").
- Loṭ (लोट्) — Imperative. Tvaṃ paṭha (त्वं पठ, "you read!").
- Laṅ (लङ्) — Imperfect past. Sa apaṭhat (सः अपठत्, "he was reading / he read").
- Vidhi-liṅ (विधिलिङ्) — Optative; expresses wish, possibility, advice. Sa paṭhet (सः पठेत्, "he should read").
Past-tense set
- Liṭ (लिट्) — Perfect, generally for events outside the speaker's experience or in remote past. Cakāra (चकार, "he did").
- Luṅ (लुङ्) — Aorist, for simple past events. Akārṣīt (अकार्षीत्, "he did").
- Laṅ also serves as a past tense as noted above.
Future-tense set
- Lṛṭ (लृट्) — Simple future. Sa kariṣyati (सः करिष्यति, "he will do").
- Luṭ (लुट्) — Periphrastic future, indicating an act expected at a definite, often distant, time. Sa kartā (सः कर्ता, "he will do [tomorrow or later]").
Conditional and benedictive
- Lṛṅ (लृङ्) — Conditional. Sa akariṣyat (सः अकरिष्यत्, "he would have done").
- Āśīr-liṅ (आशीर्लिङ्) — Benedictive; expresses a blessing or fervent wish. Sa kriyāt (सः क्रियात्, "may he do" / "may he be done").
Person and Number
Each lakāra is conjugated for three persons — prathama (third), madhyama (second), and uttama (first) — and three numbers — singular, dual, and plural. This gives nine forms per voice per lakāra.
For the verb paṭh (पठ्, "to read") in laṭ, parasmaipada:
| | Singular | Dual | Plural | |---|---|---|---| | 3rd | paṭhati | paṭhataḥ | paṭhanti | | 2nd | paṭhasi | paṭhathaḥ | paṭhatha | | 1st | paṭhāmi | paṭhāvaḥ | paṭhāmaḥ |
Two Voices
Each verbal root takes endings in one of two voice patterns — parasmaipada (पदस्मैपद, "word for another") or ātmanepada (आत्मनेपद, "word for oneself") — and a third class, ubhayapada, that may take either. Historically the distinction reflected whether the action benefited the agent or another, though in classical Sanskrit it had become largely conventional, root by root.
Stems and Classes
Verbs are grouped into ten conjugational classes (gaṇa), each with its own way of forming the present stem from the root. The same root can take different prefixes (upasarga) and suffixes to yield related verbs with new meanings. The lakāra system applies on top of this stem formation, multiplying the expressive range of the verb enormously.
Why It Matters
The lakāra system gives Sanskrit a verbal expressiveness that few languages match. A single verb form can convey tense, mood, voice, person, and number unambiguously, allowing sentences to be free in word order. The careful study of lakāras is a rite of passage for any serious student of Sanskrit grammar — and a window into the systematic elegance of Pāṇinian thought.