Dative Case (Catutthī)
Usage of Cases
Dative Case (Catutthī)
The dative case is used to indicate the meaning – to / for someone.
We have seen that the word ‘to’ is used while translating the accusative case as well. The dative case however is used to indicate a beneficiary or a recipient. i.e. when something is given to someone, the receiver takes up the dative case.
There are a few verbs which always indicate a recipient and hence are associated with nouns in dative case.
E.g.
deti / dadāti = gives
deseti = teaches / preaches
Let us construct a couple of sentences using nouns in the dative case.
Please remember the dative forms of the noun ‘buddha’ :
Singular
buddhassa, buddhāya
(to / for the Buddha)
Plural
buddhānaṃ
(to / for the Buddhas)
Translation into Pali
1. The brahmin gives food to the beggar.
● The brahmin (brāhmaṇa) being the subject of the sentence, will take up the nominative (singular) case.
● The food (bhatta) being the object, will take up accusative (singular) case.
● The beggar (yācaka) is the recipient, who receives the food. Hence the word yācaka will take up dative (singular) case.
Thus the Pali sentence will be : Brāhmaṇo yācakassa bhattaṃ dadāti.
2. The Buddha teaches Dhamma to the lay devotees.
● The Buddha being the subject of the sentence, will take up the nominative (singular) case.
● The Dhamma being the object, will take up accusative (singular) case.
● The lay devotees (upāsaka) are the recipients, who receive the Dhamma (teaching) from the Buddha. Hence the word upāsaka will take up dative (plural) case.
Thus the Pali sentence will be : Buddho upāsakānaṃ dhammaṃ deseti.
Please note : The verb ‘deseti’ is a frequently occurring verb in the Tipitaka and it is specifically used to express giving / teaching Dhamma.
Accusative – Dative cases for Direct – Indirect objects
The above logic regarding the recipient or beneficiary can be understood in yet another manner.
Please consider the above sentence again.
1. The brahmin gives food to the beggar.
Here, the verb ‘gives’ can be considered as a double object verb, with
‘food’ – the thing that is given – as its direct object, and
‘beggar’ – to whom the food is given – as its indirect object.
Similarly in the sentence,
2. The Buddha teaches Dhamma to the lay devotees.
The verb ‘teaches’ can be considered as a double object verb, with
‘dhamma’ – the thing that is taught / given – as its direct object, and
‘lay devotees’ – to whom the dhamma is taught / given – as its indirect object
We can then remember the formula :
Direct object – accusative case
Indirect object – dative case
Dative case to indicate ‘for’
The dative case is also used to indicate ‘for’, i.e. when something is done for someone.
E.g.
1. The boy cooks food for (his) friends.
2. The man brings a chariot for the merchant.
The underlined words will take up the dative case in Pali sentences.
1. Kumāro mittānaṃ bhattaṃ pacati.
2. Puriso vāṇijāya rathaṃ āharati.
Please note that there are two variants in the dative singular ending in ____ssa and ____āya. In case of a-ending nouns the ‘āya’ form is mostly used to express ‘for’ and ‘ssa’ for expressing ‘to’.
* However, no such distinction can be made in case of dative plural, as there is only one form – ending in ‘ānaṃ’ Also, in case of other nouns (i-ending, u-ending etc) such distinction between ‘to’ and ‘for’ is not followed.
** Yet we may remember this ‘for’ - ‘āya’ association for translation purpose, as we will come across many important words in the Tipitaka, which end in ‘āya’ and are translated as ‘for’
Another important use of the dative case is with the word ‘namo’ which expresses homage or veneration.
We pay homage to the Buddha, with the words :
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato Sammāsambuddhassa
Please note that all the above words except ‘namo’ are in dative case. We can easily identify the ‘ssa’ ending in case of tassa and Sammāsambuddhassa. But even the words bhagavato and arahato are dative singular forms. We will learn about these nouns later in this course.