Verbs

Verb Roots & Classes — Dhātu · Gaṇa

क्रिया (kriyā — verb/action) is the engine of every Sanskrit sentence. Without verbs, you have a list of nouns floating in space. The moment you add a verb, the sentence lives — it breathes, it moves, it means. More than that: understanding धातु (dhātu — verb roots) unlocks the entire Sanskrit vocabulary. When you know √भू (bhū — to be), you immediately recognise भव (bhava — existence), भाव (bhāva — feeling/state), भूत (bhūta — being/element), भविष्य (bhaviṣya — future), प्रभु (prabhu — lord, literally "becoming forth"). The root is encoded in all of them. Ancient Indian grammarians understood this deeply — Pāṇini's Dhātupāṭha (धातुपाठ — the root catalogue) listed each root with its meaning and class over 2,500 years ago. Learning the 10 गण (gaṇas) is like learning 10 formulas — once you know the formula for a class, every root in that class becomes predictable. This chapter is the map; the next six chapters are the territory.