tatpurusha

Tatpurusha (Sanskrit: तत्पुरुष) is a major category of samasa (compound) in Sanskrit grammar. In a tatpurusha compound, the first member qualifies the second, typically expressing a relation such as “that X” or “X of that.” The second member is the head noun, and the gender and number of the whole compound usually align with this head.

Examples include maharṣi (great sage) = maha + ṛṣi, rajarṣi (king-sage), and devaputra (god’s son). In usage, tatpurusha compounds function as adjectives or nouns and can modify a following noun or take the place of a noun in a sentence.

Origin and usage: The form is described in classical Sanskrit grammars, notably Panini’s Ashtadhyayi and later works. It is contrasted with other samasa types such as bahuvrīhi, where the compound’s head is not explicitly present, and dvandva, a double compound. Tatpurusha is widely used in Sanskrit poetry and prose to compress relationships such as possession, attribution, or specification into a single word.

Subtypes and interpretation: While tatpurusha commonly uses a determiner (often maha or deva) as the first member, scholars analyze several subtypes based on the exact semantic relation between the two members (possessive, descriptive, locative, etc.). The distinction matters for interpreting the compound in context, though many forms are routinely understood as a single unit in ordinary text.