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Bibek Debroy says in his Ramayana translation, 'Hanumat is a case in point, where Hanuman seemed to be too contrary to grammatical principles'.

What grammatical principle is that? Is it really Hanumat in the Sanskrit original?

Say No To Censorship
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Pradip Gangopadhyay
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    Can you provide more context of that quote from bibek debroy. Hanuman is nominative/prathama of root word hanumat. http://sanskrit.inria.fr/cgi-bin/SKT/sktdeclin?lex=SH&q=hanumat&t=VH&g=Mas&font=roma – Aks Jan 02 '18 at 15:40
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    Do you know if Debroy used the Critical Edition of Valimiki Ramayana for this translation? – Say No To Censorship Jan 02 '18 at 19:13
  • The Proto-Indo-European suffix that is the ancestor of Sanskrit -vat / -van is reconstructed as *-wn̥t, so either outcome is fine grammatically. – Aryaman Jan 03 '18 at 02:20
  • Can you expand on what Bibek Debroy says? Hanumat is the root of Hanuman and there are forms like Hanumate, Hanumanta: etc., even as per the much later modern grammar of Panini. There is no confusion as per the grammar. – user1952500 Jan 03 '18 at 02:53
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    Debroy translates the Critical Edition of Valmiki Ramayana. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Jan 03 '18 at 10:52
  • Debroy writes,' The intention was to do a translation that was popular in style. That meant a conscious decision to avoid the use of diacritical marks, as would have been the case had one used IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration). If diacritical marks are not going to be used, there may be problems rendering names, proper and geographic. We have sought to make the English renderings as phonetic as possible. Thus, we use 'Goutama' to refer to the sage of that name - although others have often referred to him elsewhere as 'Gautama'.' – Pradip Gangopadhyay Jan 03 '18 at 10:58
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    Debroy continues, 'There remains the question of what one does with vowel sounds. How does one differentiate the short sound from the long? Should Rama be written as Raama and Sita as Seeta? That seemed to be too artificial and contrary to popular usage. On rare occasions, this does cause a problem, with a danger of confuson between the ape Taara and his daughter Taaraa, Vali's wife. ... However, there are also instances where we have deviated from popular usage. Hanumat is a case in point, where Hanuman seemed to be too contrary to grammatical principles.' – Pradip Gangopadhyay Jan 03 '18 at 11:05
  • Ah ok, he meant the English grammatical principles. I thought you were asking about the sanskrit grammatical principle. When someone refers to a person's name in sanskrit, the prathama is usually used, so the right choice should have been 'hanumA'. Some people use the shabda which is not useful in many cases, but that's the usual issue of going across languages. – user1952500 Jan 03 '18 at 18:12
  • @PradipGangopadhyay, could you please let us know whether you need more information or both the answers are okay. And please accept any one of them. Thank you. – Adiyarkku Feb 16 '21 at 06:39
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    Both the answers seem to be OK. There seems to be no option to acknowledge both of them. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Feb 17 '21 at 11:13
  • I have accepted YDS because he answered first! – Pradip Gangopadhyay Feb 17 '21 at 11:56
  • Yes sure, any answer accepted is good :). Though technically he didn’t answer first, if we’re going merely by that logic :) – Adiyarkku Feb 17 '21 at 18:21
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    I must say that I found your answer very easy to understand. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Feb 18 '21 at 11:42
  • Thank you ji much appreciated – Adiyarkku Feb 18 '21 at 19:15
  • Actually the thing is, I had seen there was no explanation for the grammatical rule in the earlier answer and you hadn’t accepted that time. There was only one picture. Hence I decided to write an answer because I remember seeing the rule very long back. Then of course the earlier answer was also edited to add the grammar rule. Really glad you liked it. Thank you once again. – Adiyarkku Feb 18 '21 at 19:21

2 Answers2

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The word Hanuman is made of हनु + मतुँप् = हनुमत् for which Hanuman is the correct word for Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular-

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Most of तकारान्त (ends with त) words have similar kind of Vibhakti forms, for example-

Shrimat > Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular: Shriman

Bhudhhimat > Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular: Bhudhhiman

Anshumat > Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular: Anshuman

Gyanvat > Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular: Gyanvan

Bhagyavat > Male - 1st Vibhakti - singular: Bhagyavan

The all of the above words and many others similar words are formed using मतुँप् suffix.

Below are the vibhakti forms of हनुमत् -

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In UTTARA KANDA of Valmiki Ramayana, all related words such as Hanumat, Hanumata, Hanumatah, Hanumataa, Hanumati and Hanumana etc. are mentioned based on the vibhakti:

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YDS
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8

Yes, the root of Hanuman (हनुमान्) is really hanumat (हनुमत्). As per vyakarana rules of Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, the word is formed by adding the मतुँप् (matum̐p) suffix to the word हनु (Hanu), meaning jaw.

Logic:
Panini’s Ashtadhyayi gives the following sutra for the suffix:

तदस्यास्त्यस्मिन्निति मतुँप्॥ ५।२।९१

Meaning: that which belongs to him (or this) (तद् अस्य अस्ति इति) OR that which is on/in him (or this) gets the matum̐p suffix.

The Kashika Vritti commentary on the Ashtadhyayi gives an example: गावोऽस्य सन्ति गोमान्
Explanation: the cows (गो) (that) belongs to him and hence the cows get the matum̐p suffix and the person is called gomān. Meaning the one with the cows.

The reason why he got to this name relates to the incident of when as a child he goes to gobble the sun and has an encounter with Indra. As per Valmiki Ramayana Uttara Kanda:

Thereafter as he rushed on Saci’s consort, Indra, not unduly angered, with his finger loosed a thunderbolt that struck Hanuman and, at the impact, the child fell on a mountain, in his fall breaking his left jaw.
- Sarga 35

Since the thunderbolt escaped from my grasp and shattered his jaw, this child shall be called Hanuman.
- Sarga 36

Which means because his jaw (Hanu) was broken, the suffix ‘matum̐p’ was added to ‘Hanu’: हनु + मतुँप् = हनुमत्

It means the one to whom the broken jaw belongs or simply the one with the jaw.

Now while forming the vibhaktis, as rightly pointed by YDS in the photo, before editing, you will use the base Hanumat. That’s how you have the mantra Ham Hanumate Namah

For more information on how mat becomes mān in the first vibhakti, one can have a look at: Forming Hanumān from Hanumat.

Adiyarkku
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