Sanskrit Grammar: Indeclinables

Words which do not change with the three genders, three numbers and all eight cases 

are called अव्यय. व्यय (and व्यर्थ) both come from the same root. They mean to decay, perish, pass away. so Avyaya means that which unlikely to change and is used for indeclinable words - literally those which do not change. So far we have focused on endings of words - which change with gender, number, case, person - all very bewildering till you get used to it. (As yet we haven't looked at endings that change with voice and mood...) So it's always a pleasant relief to study avyayas. Hindi speakers will be familiar with quite a few of these. 

अव्ययपद is a word that never varies, except when affected by sandhi rules. At this time we should familiarise ourselves with the क्-य्-त् series.  क् leads to interrogative statements, i.e. questions like who? what? where? when? why? The य् gives us relative sentences - the Hindi equivalent being जो and the त् gives us the corelative - independent clauses that complete relative clauses to form complex sentences. That is just grammar for a sentence Like:

All (जो) who wish to leave, they (वह) can go. All क्s and य्s are marked by corresponding correlatives. Groupings will soon become obvious. Avyayas belonging to the क्-य्-त् series are adverbs with a variety of meanings:

The ending थम्/था is an adverb of manner and is best remembered by कथम्? which means 'HOW'

The ending तः gives you SOURCE-origin, (time place) etc. 

The ending दा indicates TIME

And the ending त्र indicates PLACE.

Let us look at some examples:

Place:

अत्र - here

यत्र - where; in which place

तत्र  - there

कुत्र - where?

अन्यत्र - somewhere else

सर्वत्र - everywhere

Source:

कुतः - whence? why?

ततः - from that, therefore

यतः - since, from the point that

इतः - from this, from here 

Time:

कदा - when?

यदा - when; Repeated twice (यदा यदा) it means whenever

तदा - then

Manner:

कथम्  - how, in what way, in what manner?

यथा - just as, in the manner mentioned

तथा - thus, in that way

Along with these, we should learn the following relative-correlative correspondences:

यदि if, तर्हि then

यावत् as long as, तावत् so long, that long

These help us to build complex sentences easily.

Besides the क्-य्-त् series the adverbial endings we saw above can be added to noun and pronoun stems to form adverbs with the same general meaning:

अन्यथा - otherwise

सर्वथा - every which way

अन्यतः- from another source

एकतः-from one side, on the one hand

सर्वतः- from all sides

अन्यदा - another time

एकदा - one time, once

अन्यत्र - else where

एकत्र - in one place

परत्र - in another place (often means in the next world)

Other than, there is a standard list of avyayas which can be found in any class IX or X text book. The most commonly used and important ones are:

अपि - also

अथ - and now

अधुना - now, at this time

अचिरेण - soon

इव - like

इह - here

इति - direct speech marker

एव - to add stress, to strengthen an idea 

एवम् - in this manner

क्व - where?

खलु - certainly, indeed

मा - indicates prohibition, and is used with the imperative

यदि - if

विना - without

सह - with, accompanied by

सहसा  - suddenly

तु - but, on the contrary, used for emphasis sometimes

प्रति - towards

पुरा - in olden times, formerly

नूनम् - certainly, indeed

पुनः - again (when repeated twice, it means बार बार)

There are many more - and you will be able to identify them, because there will be no 'agreement' as we have seen so far - for instance between noun and adjective. The avyaya will remain itself, unless it is affected by sandhi. That will have to wait till we do sandhi together.

More avyayapada for reference:

बहुधा - frequently, diversely

बहिः- outside

नीचैः - low, down

नित्यं - always, daily

निकटे - close by

नक्तम् - in the night, by night

दिवा  - in the day, by day

सत्यम् - truly, indeed

सत्वरम् - quickly, speedily

शीघ्रम् - quickly

शनैः - slowly

वृथा - useless, meaningless

मुहुर्मुहुः - over and over again

मन्दम् - slowly, faintly

ऋते - without, except

उच्चैः - high, loudly

इदानीम् - just now, at this moment

अद्य - today

अधः - lower, beneath

This list is by no means comprehensive. There are many more avyayas. But these will do for a start.

Sentences for reference:

यत्र वसति रामः तत्र वसति सीता

यदि रामः वनम् गच्छति तर्हि सीता अपि गच्छति

यावत् रामः वनम् न गच्छति तावत् राक्षसाः तत्र नन्दन्ते