Awadhi Grammar: A Brief Introduction
How similar is the language of the Rāmcaritmānas to Hindi, Bengali, and Sanskrit?
Recently, I’ve been working on a series of posts where I closely translate some excerpts from the Sundarkāṇḍ chapter of the Rāmcaritmānas (at the time of writing, Part 1 and Part 2 have been published). As a complement to that series, I thought it would be helpful to write a post devoted to Awadhi grammar, highlighting similarities and differences with Hindi, Bengali, and Sanskrit. By “Awadhi,” I mean specifically the language of the Rāmcaritmānas, which likely does not capture the entire spatiotemporal variation of the language.
This post is based heavily on the grammar section of Reading the Rāmcaritmānas by Rupert Snell and Neha Tiwari (p. 17-74), which I highly recommend reading if you’re serious about learning Awadhi. Compared to that, my overview is less comprehensive, but hopefully more accessible. I emphasize points that I personally find interesting and important along with handpicked examples from the original text. Since my personal goal is to comfortably understand the Sundarkāṇḍ, I have chosen all examples to be from that specific chapter. Each snippet of text is labeled with the verse it comes from, using the standard notation (ex. 5 would refer to the fifth dohā, and 5.3 to the third caupāī in between the fourth and fifth dohās). Unlike Snell, who reproduces entire verses in his examples, I’ve made my selections as short as possible for highlighting the grammatical point at hand. My goal is to avoid overwhelming the reader with words they don’t understand. Hopefully, this post can serve as an introductory resource for anyone interested in understanding the language of the Rāmcaritmānas.
Note: This post works best if you read it on desktop rather than mobile.
Personal pronouns and their declensions
Awadhi personal pronouns are largely similar to their Hindi counterparts, and are given in the table below1:
Person Direct Oblique Genitive 1 sg मैं मो/मोहि मोर/मोरा 2 sg तैं तो/तोहि तोरा 3 sg (prox) यह/एह एहि --- 3 sig (rem) सो तेहि/ताहि तासु 1 pl हम हमहि हमार/हमारा 2 pl तुम्ह तुम्ह/तुम्हहि तुम्हारा 3 pl (prox) ए इन्ह/इन्हहि --- 3 pl (rem) ते तिन्ह/तिन्हहि ---
As a comparison, here are the Hindi pronouns:
Person Direct Oblique Genitive Ergative 1 sg मैं मुझे मेरा मैने 2 sg तुम तुझे तुम्हारा तुमने 3 sg (prox) यह इस इसका इसने 3 sg (rem) वह उस उसका उसने 1 pl हम हमें हमारा हमने 3 pl (prox) ये इन्हे इनका इन्होने 3 pl (rem) वे उन्हे उनका उन्होने
Some comments:
Note that there is no column for ergative declensions in Awadhi. This is because in Awadhi, ergative constructions just use the oblique construction. In contrast, Hindi uses constructions with the distinctive ending -ने. This will also come up in the discussion of general noun declensions later in the post.
The Awadhi 2nd person singular pronoun is तैं, which I find unintuitive because I’m used to Indo-European languages using an -u sound for this pronoun.2 Also, be sure to remember that the Awadhi pronoun तुम्ह is 2nd person plural, not singular.
Interestingly, the Awadhi third person remote pronouns सो/ते are more reminiscent of Sanskrit स:/ते, than of Hindi वह/वे. The absence of pronouns beginning with v- is one small thing that distinguishes Awadhi from Hindi. Also compare the proximate pronouns ए/ते to Sanskrit एष:/एते.
The Awadhi singular remote third person genitive pronoun तासु is quite distinct from its Hindi counterpart उसका. The -s- sound in the ending is reminiscent of the Sanskrit -sya genitive ending.
Examples of personal pronouns in action in the Sundarkāṇḍ:
तब लगि मोहि परिखेहु तुम्ह भाई (1.1) - “Until then, wait for me, you brothers”
यह कहि (1.2) - “He, having said”
कही तेहिं बाता (2.1) - “She3 said the words”
Other types of pronouns
Relative pronouns: Like in Hindi, the general rule for forming relative pronouns is to take the corresponding definite 3rd person pronoun and replace the first letter with ज्. Thus, we get the following forms:
Number Direct Oblique Genitive sg जो जा/जाहि/जेहि/जेहिं जासु pl जे जिन्ह/जिन्हहि ---
Interrogative pronouns: Largely similar to the relatives, but starting with क्. Thus:
Direct (an.) Direct (inan.) Oblique Genitive
को/कवन का/काह केहिं/केहि/काहि/कवनें (oblique+ppn.)Reflexive pronouns: The reflexive pronoun is used to describe something relating to one’s own.
Direct/Oblique Genitive आप निज/आपन/आपनि
Note the existence of the form निज, which is common in Bengali, but not in standard Hindi.
Indefinite pronouns: The words for “someone”/“something” and their declensions.
Direct (an.) Direct (inan.) Oblique Genitive
कोउ/कोइ कछु काहु काहुकSome examples of these pronouns:
जेहिं गिरि चरन देइ हनुमंता (1.4) - “The mountain on which Hanuman placed his foot”
निज पद नयन दिएँ (8) - “[She] lay her eyes on her own feet”
कछु मारेसि कछु मर्देसि (18) - “Some4 [he] slew, some [he] crushed”
Pronominals
In Hindi, the pronominal series for similarity (declined to agree with masculine singular) is: ऐसा (like this), वैसा (like that) जैसा (like which type), कैसा (like what?).
In Awadhi, the similarity pronominals are generally अस, तस, कस, जस. Some variants, like असि instead of अस, and कसि for कस, may be encountered. The Hindi forms may also be used in Awadhi, except for वैसा (evidently, Awadhi is averse to using v- to form proximate pronouns/pronominals, opting instead for t-). Here is an example of a relative pronominal:
जस जस सुरसा बदनु बढ़ावा (2.5) - “Just as Surasa widened her mouth”
Similarly, the Hindi pronominal series for quantity (declined in masculine singular) is: इतना (this much), उतना (that much), जितना (as much as), कितना (how much?).
In Awadhi, this quantity pronominals are generally एतना, तेते, जत/जेते, and कत/केते. Note how the -na ending is omitted in most of the forms - quite reminiscent of Bengali তত, যত, কত.
Regular nouns and their declensions
Awadhi, like Hindi, has just two cases: direct and oblique. There is no ergative variant of the oblique case in Awadhi (i.e. the -ने marker in Hindi).
In the direct case, masculine singular nouns may optionally end in -उ. The direct case plural often does not have any ending at all, and must be inferred based on context. However, feminine nouns ending in ई may become nasalized as ईं in the plural.
Recognizing oblique case nouns in Awadhi is quite simple; you don’t need to memorize complex declension rules based on number, gender, and vowel ending of the noun stem. Oblique singular nouns are indicated either by nasalizing the last syllable, or adding the ending -हि/-हिं. Oblique plural nouns are indicated by the ending -न्ह/-न्हि.
Like in Hindi, a noun must be in oblique case before a postposition is added to it. In Tulsidas’s Awadhi, the oblique case is often used without the postpositions that would typically be added in Hindi or Bengali to clarify the noun’s role in the sentence. While postposition omission allows Tulsidas to be very elegant in his composition, it can lead to ambiguity of understanding. Combined with the fact that there is no ergative variant of the oblique case, this means that ergative sentences can easily become overloaded with oblique nouns, and it’s up to the reader to figure out what is going on based on context.
Here is an illustrative example of ambiguity that can arise with oblique nouns: आजु सुरन्ह मोहि दीन्ह अहारा (2.2) - “today the gods have given me food.” When reading this sentence, the first thing that pops out is the plural oblique form सुरन्ह of the noun सुर (“god”). But then we see that the very next word, मोहि (“me”) is also in oblique case! To understand this sentence, we have to recognize that दीन्ह is the perfective participle5 of the transitive verb दे (“to give”), equivalent to Hindi दिया. Thus, one of these oblique nouns is the logical subject of the ergative verb whose logical object is the direct noun अहारा (“food”). Based on context, we can deduce that सुरन्ह (“the gods”) is the logical subject, and मोहि (“to me”) is an indirect object. However, due to fluid word order, there is nothing grammatically preventing swapping the two roles, i.e. “today I have given the gods food.” In Hindi, this ambiguity would never arise: the two sentences would be आज सुरोंने मुझ्को दिया अहारा (“today the gods have given me food”) and आज सुरोंको मैने दिया अहारा (“today I have given the gods food”).
Postpositions
Awadhi postpositions are generally similar to their Hindi counterparts, with some changes that are important to keep in mind.
Locative postpositions: महँ/महुँ/माझ/माहीं, all corresponding to Hindi में (‘in”). Make sure not to confuse these with the Awadhi first person pronouns मैं and मो/मोहि. There’s also the postposition पर (“on”), which is the same as in Hindi.
Instrumental postpositions: ते/सन/सो/सों, all corresponding to Hindi से (“from”). There’s also the Sanskritic form संग, which corresponds to Hindi के संग, as well as सहित.
Oblique postpositions: कहँ/कहुँ correspond to Hindi को, which can be added after an oblique nouns in order to specify that it is the direct object. Be sure not to mix these up with the interrogative and indefinite pronouns.
Possessive postposition: क/कर/के (m.) and कै (f.), corresponding to Hindi का (m. sg.), की (f. sg.), and के (pl.).
Dative postposition: लगि, corresponding to Hindi के लिये. There’s also तन, which means “towards.”
Similarity postpositions: इव, की नाईं, जथा, जिमि, सम, समान, सरिस
The most important postposition…is none at all! Recall the earlier discussion about how Awadhi often uses the oblique case on its own for contexts in which one would typically expect a postposition to clarify the meaning.
Here are some examples of Awadhi postpositions (including the lack-of-postposition):
जामवंत के बचन (1.1) - “the words of Jambavan”
हियँ धरि रघुनाथा (1.2) - “holding Raghunatha in [his] heart” - there’s no actually preposition here, with the locative case implied for the oblique noun हियँ. This would be impossible to do in Hindi; you’d have to say हियों में.
जानैं कहुँ (2.1) - “for knowing”
गयउ दसानन मंदिर माहीं (5.3) - “[he] went into Dasanana’s palace”
मन महुँ तरक करैं कपि लागा (6.1) - “in [his] mind, the monkey thought thus”
की तुम्ह हरि दासन्ह महँ कोई (6.4) - “are you one among Hari’s servants”
कटिहउँ तव सिर कठिन कृपाना (10.1) - “I will cut off your head [with my] tough sword” - here, the facts that कृपाना is oblique, locative, and possessed by the speaker are all simply implied. This sentence literally translates nonsensically as “I will cut off your head tough sword.” This extreme economy of words gives Tulsidas great flexibility in composing his verses, and make the poem feel both casual and esoteric at the same time.
Verb conjugation: present, past, and future
To participle or not to participle? A participle is a verbal form that works grammatically as an adjective. For example, in the English sentence “I am going,” the word “going” is actually a participle describing the subject “I.” However, in the sentence “I go,” the word “go” is a true verb - a finite verb. In Awadhi, finite verbs and participles are both used in forming the common tenses. This puts it somewhere between Hindi (which relies heavily on participles) and Bengali (which relies heavily on finite verbs).
In Hindi, the present and past tenses both require participle constructions. As an example of the present tense, to say “I go,” you say मैं जाता हूँ. Here, जाता is the imperfective participle of the verb जाना (“to go”), declined in a way that assumes a first person singular masculine speaker - the gender is important because in Hindi, adjectives must agree with the gender of the noun they describe.6 The finite verb of the sentence is the copula (i.e. “to be” verb) होना, conjugated for first person singular. You could argue that मैं जाता हूँ should be more accurately translated as “I am going,” but it turns out that Hindi has another construction for the present continuous: मैं जा रहा हूँ.
The Hindi past tense is either formed with the same participle but different copula conjugation (मैं जाता था), or with the perfective participle. If the perfective verb is transitive, Hindi uses an ergative construction, for example मैने लड़की देखी (“I saw the girl”). Here, the perfective देखी, from देखना (“to see”), agrees with the feminine लड़की, which is the logical object of the sentence, but the grammatical subject. The word मैने is the logical subject (i.e. the person performing the action of seeing), but it is grammatically in oblique case! This is really a passive construction, i.e. “By me, the girl was seen.” Lastly, the Hindi future tense is formed with true finite verbs - मैं जाऊंगा, हम जाएंगे, etc.
In Bengali, the situation is much simpler - all the tenses are formed with finite verbs. Thus, in the present tense, “I go” is just আমি যাই, and “I am going” is আমি যাছি. The past tense has finite forms like আমি গেলাম and আমি গিয়েছি (both meaning “I went”). The future is আমি যাবো (“I will go”).
In what follows, we will see that Awadhi, unlike Hindi (but like Bengali), has finite verb forms for the past, present, and future tenses. An equivalent of the Hindi imperfective participle does exist in Awadhi, but is not as common as the finite form for the present tense. The past tense commonly uses both finite verbs and the perfective participle - what I’ve noticed is that finite conjugations are common for first and third person singular subjects, while for plural subjects the participle dominates. This “hybridized” past tense sets Awadhi apart from both Hindi and Bengali. The future tense has two forms: a Hindi-like form involving a nasalized syllable, and a Bengali-like form involving the -b- sound.
Present (i.e. present-subjunctive) tense
Present finite form: In Awadhi, the imperfective participle is not the common way of forming the present tense. Instead, the so-called present-subjunctive form is used (corresponding to the subjunctive in Hindi). Thus:
Awadhi: मैं करौं - “I (will) do”
Hindi: मैं करूं - “I would do”
Note the difference in meaning: In Awadhi, the sentence does not have subjunctive connotation, while in Hindi it does. However, the Awadhi present-subjunctive can evidently have a futuristic connotation. Here are some7 of the present-subjunctive conjugations, along with examples:
1st sg: -औं. Ex: अति लघु रूप धरौं निसि (3) - “I shall assume a very small form at night”
1st pl: -अहिं. Same as 3rd pl., see below.
2nd sg: -एसि. Ex: बिकल होसि तैं (4.4) - “When you are mutilated”
2nd pl: -अहु. (I haven’t found example in Sundarkāṇḍ yet)
3rd sg: -अ. Ex: सो कह चलेसि (4.1) - “She said, ‘he has come’”
3rd pl: -अहिं. Ex: सीतहि त्रास दॆखावहिं (10) - “They showed Sita terror”
Present participle form: The imperfective participle in Awadhi is similar to Hindi, but is only found with the endings -त (masculine) and -ति (feminine, optional). There is no singular/plural distinction. As stated above, it is only occasionally used to form the present tense, appearing more frequently as a modifier, i.e. a present version of the absolutive (i.e. “doing X” instead of “having done X”). When used for the present tense, it does not need to be paired with a conjugated form of the copula.
Here is an example of the imperfective used as a present tense verb:
अस मन समुझु कहति जानकी (9.4) - “‘Understand this in your heart,’ says Janaki”
And here is an example of it being used as a modifier:
सुनत बचन कह पवनकुमारा (2.2) - “Hearing these words, Hanuman said…”
Past (i.e. perfective) tense
Past finite form: While Awadhi also has the past participle, which we’ll get to in a second, it also has a simple past. This is often formed by inserting the vowel ए after the verb stem and before the appropriate person/number ending. This actually makes it quite similar to the Bengali simple past tense.
1st sg: -एउँ. Ex: देखेउँ नयन राम कर दूता (4.4) - “I saw [with my] eyes Rama’s messenger”
1st pl: (none; left blank by Snell)
2nd sg: -एहि. Ex: आनेहि मोहि (9.5) - “You brought me”
2nd pl: -एहु. (I haven’t found example in the Sundarkāṇḍ yet)
3rd sg: -एउ. Ex: मधुर बचन बोलेउ हनुमाना (13.2) - “Hanuman said sweet words”
3rd pl: -एन्हि. (I haven’t found example in the Sundarkāṇḍ yet)
Past participle form: As indicated above, the plural conjugations of the perfective are quite rare. In contexts where the past tense is required for plural subjects, Tulsidas tends to use the perfective participle construction instead. The ergative rules for the perfective participle are essentially the same as in Hindi. If the verb is intransitive, the participle is conjugated to agree with the number/gender of the logical subject of the sentence (which is in direct case). If the verb is transitive, however, the participle is conjugated to agree with the number/gender of the logical object, which is in direct case, while the logical subject is relegated to oblique case.8 Thus, if you encounter a plural oblique noun (i.e. a noun ending in -न्ह), you should be on the lookout for a corresponding transitive perfective participle in the same sentence.
Most perfective participles are formed by adding the following vowels after the verb root, much like Hindi:
M. sg: -अ/-आ
M. pl: -ए
F. sg: -इ -ई
F. pl: -ईं
The common perfective participles that are irregular in Hindi are also irregular in Awadhi, and tend to have -न्ह्- where Hindi has -य्-. Consider the following masculine singular forms:
करना (“to do”): किया (Hindi), कीन्हा (Awadhi)
लेना (“to take”): लिया (Hindi), लीन्हा (Awadhi)
देना (“to give”): दिया (Hindi), दीन्हा (Awadhi)
Here are some examples of intransitive perfective participles being used to form the past tense:
तेहीं समय बिभीषनु जागा (6.1) - “At that time, Vibhishana awoke” (sg. subj: बिभीषनु)
सुनत बिभीषन उठि तहँ आए (6.3) - “Vibhishana heard and came there” (sg. subj: बिभीषन)
रावनु तहँ आवा (9.1) - “Ravana came there” (sg. subj: रावनु)
And here are some examples of transitive perfective participles:
जात पवनसुत देवन्ह देखा (2.1) - “The gods saw the Wind-Son going” (pl. subj: देवन्ह)
आजु सुरन्ह मोहि दीन्ह अहारा (2.2) - “Today the gods have given me food” (pl. subj: सुरन्ह)
तेहिं बदनु पसारा (2.4) - “She extended [her] body” (sg. subj: तेहिं)
मोहि सुरन्ह जेहि लागि पठावा (2.6) - “For what the gods have sent me” (pl. subj: सुरन्ह)
Future tense
Nasal form: In Awadhi, there are two ways of forming the simple future. Apparently, the more common way is with an ending of the form -iha+[vowel], which is reminiscent of the Hindi future construction [vowel]+(n)g+[vowel]:
1st sg: -इहउँ. Ex: कटिहउँ तव सिर (10.1) - “I will cut [off] your head”
1st pl: —
2nd sg: -इहसि.
2nd pl: -इहहु.
3rd sg: -इहि.
3rd pl: -इहहिं. Ex: कपिन्ह सहित अइहहिं रघुबीरा (16.2) - “Raghubira9 will come with monkeys”
B-form: Another set of future tense forms involve the sound -ब्-, which is quite similar to Bengali.10 These seem to be rare in the Rāmcaritmānas. According to Snell, the ending -अब may be used generically for any person/number. In addition to that, he explicitly mentions the following first-person forms:
1st sg: -अबि. Ex: तौ मैं मारबि काढ़ि कृपाना (10.5) - “I will kill you [with] my sharp sword”
1st pl: -अबि.
Other verb forms
Absolutive
The absolutive of a verb X refers to a completed action, i.e. “having [done] X.” Absolutives are commonly used across Indian languages of both the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian groups - think of the Sanskrit -त्वा ending (कृत्वा “having done,” गत्वा “having gone,” etc.), the Hindi -कर/-के ending (करके, जाकर, etc.), Bengali -এ (করে, গিয়ে etc.). In Kannada, the absolutive is often formed by adding -ಇ to the verb stem (ಮಾಡಿ, ಹೋಗಿ, etc.). Coincidentally, the way of forming the absolutive in Awadhi is also to add -इ to the verb stem:
चलेउ हरषि हियँ धरि रघुनाथा (1.2) - “[He] went joyfully, having held Raghunatha at heart.”
राम काजु करि फिरि मैं आवौं (2.2) - “Having done Rama’s work, I will return11 and come.”
बदन पइठि पुनि बाहेर आवा (2.3) - “Having entered [her] mouth, [he] again came out.”
Imperative
In Awadhi, the imperative forms usually involve an ending with the -उ sound (although there are some other variants, which I’m not mentioning here). This is reminiscent of some Sanskrit forms (ex. कुरु and करोतु from the root कृ).
2nd sg: -उ. Ex: सत्य नाम करु (12.5) - “Make12 true to [your] name”
2nd pl: -अहु. Ex: सुनहु पवनसुत रहनि हमारी (7.1) - “Listen,13 Wind-Son, to my condition”
Infinitive
Similar to Hindi -ना (which is also the standard way of listing Hindi verbs in the dictionary), Awadhi has an infinite form with the ending -न. However, I don’t recall encountering it in the Sundarkāṇḍ as of yet. Another way to form the infinitive is with -ऐं. Some examples:
जानैं कहुँ बल बुद्धि बिसेषा (2.1) - “To know [his] special strength and intellect”
रामचंद्र गुन बरनैं लागा (13.3) - “He began14 to describe the qualities of Ramachandra”
लागीं सुनैं श्रवन मन लाई (13.3) - “[She] began to listen with her ears and heart.”
Thus ends my brief introduction to Awadhi grammar, based on Rupert Snell’s Reading the Rāmcaritmānas and focused specifically on the Sundarkāṇḍ chapter. I apologize for any unintended errors, and want to reiterate that this is by no means a comprehensive work - I’ve skipped a lot of the nuances and variations in forms and meaning that are explained in depth by Snell. For example, on p. 59-62 of his book, Snell presents a table of 52 verb endings! We’re still far from mastering all that, but it’s a start. Personally, I always find the Rāmcaritmānas beautiful and comforting to listen to, no matter how little or how much I understand - a vast forest (or lake, rather) that can be endlessly explored and enjoyed.
If an entry is empty, it means that the form is not attested in the readings chosen by Snell in his book.
Think Hindi tū/tum, Bengali tumi/tui, Spanish tú, and German du.
The oblique form तेहिं is used for “she.” This is in accordance with the rules of the ergative construction, which we will get to later in the post.
Note that the inanimate pronoun कछु is being used to describe the Asuras here.
We will cover this topic properly later in the post, I promise.
If the speaker is a woman, she would say मैं जाती हूँ.
There are multiple variants for some of these conjugations even within the Ramcaritmanas, but I’m omitting them for clarity. For a more in-depth description, see Snell p. 40.
Importantly, remember from our earlier discussion on noun declensions that in Awadhi, there is no separate marker for an ergative oblique noun, i.e. an equivalent of the Hindi -ने.
Evidently, रघुबीरा is grammatically a plural noun here, I think as a form of respect.
There are two absolutives in this sentence: करि (“having done”), and फिरि (“having returned”).
This is still from the root कर (“to do”) from Sanskrit कृ. It’s easier to translate it into English as “make” in this context. It’s interesting to juxtapose imperatives of this verb across languages: Sanskrit कुरु, Hindi करो, and Awadhi करु.
Evidently, the 2nd person plural is being used out of respect.
This is the best way to translate लागा in this context. See Snell p. 57.