Evaṃ me sutaṃ

We have learnt Verbs in Pali and their conjugation with respect to various Tenses and Moods. We also studied indeclinables (gerunds and infinitives) and various participles formed from the verbs. In the sentences we studied so far, the action indicated by the verb was carried out by the subject (except in the passive voice). However, there can be instances where the subject does not perform the action directly, but causes someone to perform it. In other words, the action is performed through an agent. Let us consider a few such examples.

1. The king calls his ministers through a messenger.
2. The merchant asks his servants to serve food to the beggars.
3. Mother makes her child eat the food.

In the above sentences, the action of calling, serving, and eating is not done by the main subject of the sentence (the king, the merchant, mother) but they cause the action to happen. In such Pali sentences, causative verbs are used to indicate the involvement of an agent. Moreover, the main subject takes up the nominative case and the agent takes up accusative or instrumental case.

Causative verbs are formed by adding the suffix e (aya) or āpe (āpaya) to the verbal base or root of the verb. The vowel in the verbal base sometimes gets strengthened while adding these suffixes.

E.g.
paca + e (aya) / āpe (āpaya) → pāce (pācaya) / pācāpe (pācāpaya)
pāceti (pācayati) / pācāpeti (pācāpayati) = causes to cook, gets (the food) cooked

Please note that in case of verbal bases ending in ‘e’ like core, pūje, dese etc., only the āpe (āpaya) suffix is added to the verbal base.