What is a samas in sanskrit?

Answer 1

samAs is what we call a "compound-word" in Sanskrit. The compacting capability of Sanskrit arises out of this important method of word formation. Two or more words may be upto even 8-10 words if need be could be added together to form a samAs.

The simplest one for eg. is say rAjapuruShaH[ Person belonging to the King's functionaries- the current equivalent of a Government official. The samAs' meaning is derived or shown by expanding out the component words with the applicable case terminations. For instance the word above i.e rAjapuruShaH would be explained as rAj~naH puruShaH = King's Man. Like in English if King's man could be called King-man that would be closest to Sanskrit. Such formations aboud in German among the Indo-European Languages. All India languages share this basic feature of Sanskrit.

Sanskrit of course other methods of word formation, which also aid in compactification, that are not common in other Indian languages. Formation of very long samasta-padas as they are called is a special feature of Sanskrit. To illustrate a particularly long samAs here is an example:

karA~ngulinakhotpanna-nArAyaNa-dashAkR^itiH

karasya-a~nguliH = The fingers of the hand;

karA~NgulinAm-nakhAh-nakhaH = The nails of the fingers of the hand;

kara~Nguli-nakhrbhyo-utpannAH = Created out of the nails on the fingers of (two) hands;

nArAyaNasya- dasha-AkR^itayaH = The Ten Avatars of Narayana(ViShNu)

karasya-angulInAm-nakhebhyaH-utpannaaH-nArAyaNasya-dasha-AkR^itayaH- yasyaaH sA : -> This is called a bahuvrIhiH samAsa in the ultimate.

SHE from the nails of the (Ten) fingers(of the two hands)were created the TEN avatars of ViShNu = devI or shakti is meant.

Thus several such examples could be cited for samAsa-formation. This is a very vast topic under Sanskrit Grammar.

Answer 2

In Sanskrit grammar, a samasa is a compound word formed by combining two or more words to create a new, single word. Samasas can be classified into different categories based on the relationship between the constituent words, such as tatpurusha, karmadharaya, dvandva, and bahuvrihi compounds.