The first five case affixes comprised in the pratyahāra suṭ (i.e. the three case-terminations of the Nominative, and the singular and dual of the Accusative) are also called sarvanāmasthāna , except the case-affixes of the neuter gender.,
This defines further the word sarvanamasthana. The case-terminations in Sanskrit are 21 as arranged below:-
- Nominative प्रथमा सु (स्) औ जस् (अस्)
- Accusative द्वितीया अम् औट् शस् (अस्)
- Instrumental तृतीया टा (आ) भ्याम् भिस्
- Dative चतुर्थी ङे (ए) भ्याम् भ्यस्
- Ablative पंचमी ङसि (अस्) भ्याम् भ्यस्
- Genitive षष्ठी ङस् (अस्) ओस् आम्
- Locative सप्तमी ङि (इ) ओस् सुप् (सु)
The above are the 21 vibhaktis, the ज् of जस्, the श् of शस्, the ट् of औट् &c. are indicatory. All these vibhaktis are included in the pratyahara सुप् formed by taking the first vibhakti and the last letter of the last vibhakti. Similarly the first five terminations (सु. औ, जस्, अम् and औट्) are represented by सुट् and are called sarvanamasthana in the masculine and feminine genders. In the declension of nouns, it will be seen, that some nouns have two bases, one before these sarvanamasthana and the other before the rest.
Thus the word राजन् 'king' has the base राजान् before the सुट् vibhaktis, while in the remaining cases, the base is राज्ञ् and राज as:-
- Nominative राजा राजानौ राजानः
- Accusative राजानम् राजानौ राज्ञः
- Instrumental राज्ञा राजभ्यां राजभिः
But in the neuter nouns there is no such difference.,