Hindi can name the actor in a passive, but it does so less freely than English uses by. द्वारा/के द्वारा are characteristic of official, academic, and journalistic prose (formal); से is natural in narrower patterns involving affected agency, accidental action, or ability; के हाथों adds a marked “at the hands of” perspective in elevated reporting (formal) and narrative prose (literary). In everyday conversation, an active clause with ने is often better when the actor is important.
The passive subject still controls agreement, as explained on the passive agreement page. Naming the actor does not restore active subject agreement.
द्वारा and के द्वारा
Both द्वारा and के द्वारा can mark an explicit passive agent (formal). Compact institutional names commonly occur directly before द्वारा: सरकार द्वारा, समिति द्वारा, विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा. The genitive form is frequent with pronouns and expanded noun phrases: मेरे द्वारा, जाँच समिति के द्वारा. Style varies, and के द्वारा is not inherently “more passive” than द्वारा.
| Passive subject | Expressed agent | Predicate |
|---|---|---|
| यह पुल (masculine singular) | कंपनी द्वारा | बनाया गया |
| यह सड़क (feminine singular) | कंपनी द्वारा | बनाई गई |
| ये पुल (masculine plural) | कंपनी द्वारा | बनाए गए |
| ये सड़कें (feminine plural) | कंपनी द्वारा | बनाई गईं |
यह सर्वेक्षण एक स्वतंत्र संस्था द्वारा किया गया है।
yah sarvekṣaṇ ek svatantra saṃsthā dvārā kiyā gayā hai.
This survey has been conducted by an independent organization. (formal)
नई प्रणाली हमारे इंजीनियरों द्वारा विकसित की गई।
naī praṇālī hamāre iñjīniyaroṃ dvārā viksit kī gaī.
The new system was developed by our engineers. (formal)
ये दिशानिर्देश स्वास्थ्य मंत्रालय द्वारा जारी किए गए हैं।
ye diśānirdeś svāsthya mantrālay dvārā jārī kie gae haiṃ.
These guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of Health. (formal)
सभी प्रविष्टियाँ तीन विशेषज्ञों के द्वारा जाँची गईं।
sabhī praviṣṭiyā̃ tīn viśeṣagyoṃ ke dvārā jā̃cī gaīṃ.
All entries were checked by three experts. (formal)
The actor phrase is postpositional, so इंजीनियरों/विशेषज्ञों is oblique and cannot govern the predicate. Feminine प्रणाली produces की गई; feminine plural प्रविष्टियाँ produces जाँची गईं.
Passive or active when the actor matters?
The passive keeps the patient as the discourse center even after an agent is added. Formal biography, labels, reports, and institutional notices often need exactly that perspective. Ordinary answers to “who did it?” usually make the person the grammatical subject instead.
यह उपन्यास प्रेमचंद द्वारा लिखा गया था।
yah upanyās premcand dvārā likhā gayā thā.
This novel was written by Premchand. (formal/academic context)
यह उपन्यास प्रेमचंद ने लिखा था।
yah upanyās premcand ne likhā thā.
Premchand wrote this novel. (neutral)
यह चित्र किस कलाकार ने बनाया?
yah citr kis kalākār ne banāyā?
Which artist made this picture? (neutral conversation)
यह चित्र किस कलाकार द्वारा बनाया गया था?
yah citr kis kalākār dvārā banāyā gayā thā?
By which artist was this picture made? (formal/catalogue style)
These pairs do not differ in truth conditions. They differ in perspective and register. The active foregrounds Premchand or the artist; the passive foregrounds the work and packages authorship as identifying information.
से is not a general replacement for द्वारा
से has many roles: instrument, source, cause, comparison, and oblique experiencer. It can also identify an affected or involuntary actor in passive-like clauses. This is especially natural with accidental completion and negative ability. It does not automatically produce the neutral formal authorship meaning of द्वारा.
यह फ़ाइल मुझसे गलती से मिटा दी गई।
yah fāil mujhse galtī se miṭā dī gaī.
I accidentally deleted this file.
आज मुझसे इतना काम नहीं किया जाएगा।
āj mujhse itnā kām nahīṃ kiyā jāegā.
I will not be able to do this much work today.
In the first sentence, मुझसे presents the speaker as the accidental source of the event, while गलती से separately marks accidental manner. The second is formally a future passive but conventionally describes the speaker’s capacity, not merely a future arrangement in which the work lacks an agent. This ability-like use is treated fully on the ability-like passive negatives page.
Because से is semantically broad, रवि से पत्र लिखा गया needs context: रवि से can identify the agent, but the construction may also foreground Ravi’s affected involvement or his managing to complete the task. It does not by itself guarantee the detached attribution associated with द्वारा. For unambiguous formal attribution, choose रवि द्वारा; for neutral conversation, choose active रवि ने. An explicitly causative meaning such as “Ravi was made to write the letter” instead requires causative लिखवाया गया.
के हाथों and marked agency
के हाथों literally invokes someone’s “hands” and often presents the patient as suffering defeat, death, capture, or another consequential outcome. It is common in elevated journalism (formal) and narrative prose (literary), not as a neutral bureaucratic equivalent of by.
अंततः सेनापति अपने ही सैनिकों के हाथों मारा गया।
antataḥ senāpati apne hī sainikoṃ ke hāthoṃ mārā gayā.
In the end, the commander was killed at the hands of his own soldiers. (literary)
टीम फ़ाइनल में अपने पुराने प्रतिद्वंद्वी के हाथों हरा दी गई।
ṭīm fāinal meṃ apne purāne pratidvandvī ke hāthoṃ harā dī gaī.
The team was defeated in the final by its old rival. (elevated sports reporting)
The phrase adds evaluation and affectedness. प्रतिद्वंद्वी द्वारा would sound administratively detached, while an active clause would foreground the rival.
Negation, questions, and higher layers
The agent phrase does not determine polarity or tense. Those meanings remain on the passive predicate. The patient controls gender and number throughout.
यह निर्णय निदेशक द्वारा नहीं लिया गया था।
yah nirṇay nirdeśak dvārā nahīṃ liyā gayā thā.
This decision had not been made by the director. (formal)
क्या यह सूचना आपके कार्यालय द्वारा जारी की गई थी?
kyā yah sūcnā āpke kāryālay dvārā jārī kī gaī thī?
Was this notice issued by your office? (formal)
अगली जाँच किस एजेंसी द्वारा की जाएगी?
aglī jā̃c kis ejensī dvārā kī jāegī?
Which agency will conduct the next investigation? (formal)
रिपोर्ट बाहरी सलाहकारों द्वारा तैयार की जा रही है।
riporṭ bāhrī salāhkāroṃ dvārā taiyār kī jā rahī hai.
The report is being prepared by external consultants. (formal)
The last predicate is layered: agreeing lexical participle तैयार की, passive carrier जा, progressive viewpoint रही, present auxiliary है. The agent remains outside that agreement-bearing stack.
Common Mistakes
Making the द्वारा-agent control agreement
❌ किताब दो लेखकों द्वारा लिखे गए।
Incorrect — किताब is feminine singular; the plural agent does not control agreement.
✅ किताब दो लेखकों द्वारा लिखी गई।
kitāb do lekhkoṃ dvārā likhī gaī.
The book was written by two authors. (formal)
Combining ने with द्वारा
❌ यह नियम समिति ने द्वारा बनाया गया।
Incorrect — ने belongs to an active clause, not inside a द्वारा phrase.
✅ यह नियम समिति द्वारा बनाया गया।
yah niyam samiti dvārā banāyā gayā.
This rule was made by the committee. (formal)
Using the wrong form in a द्वारा question
❌ यह डिज़ाइन किसने द्वारा बनाया गया?
Incorrect — द्वारा takes an oblique genitive phrase or किस directly, not किसने.
✅ यह डिज़ाइन किसके द्वारा बनाया गया?
yah ḍizāin kiske dvārā banāyā gayā?
By whom was this design made? (formal)
Treating से as an unambiguous formal by-agent
❌ यह शोधपत्र प्रोफ़ेसर से लिखा गया।
Poor for neutral formal authorship — से invites ability, causative, or affected-agent readings.
✅ यह शोधपत्र प्रोफ़ेसर द्वारा लिखा गया।
yah śodhpatr profesar dvārā likhā gayā.
This research paper was written by the professor. (formal)
Using a direct pronoun before द्वारा
❌ रिपोर्ट मैं द्वारा भेजी गई।
Incorrect — a pronoun before द्वारा must take its genitive oblique form.
✅ रिपोर्ट मेरे द्वारा भेजी गई।
riporṭ mere dvārā bhejī gaī.
The report was sent by me. (formal)
Key Takeaways
Use द्वारा/के द्वारा for explicit attribution in formal registers, not as an automatic translation of English by. Use से only when its affected, accidental, or ability-related reading fits, and recognize the marked perspective of के हाथों. Whatever the agent phrase, agreement remains with the unmarked patient—or defaults when no eligible controller exists.
Now practice Hindi
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Passive voice with जानाB1 — Build Hindi passives from a perfective participle plus जाना, with the patient controlling agreement and the outer verb carrying tense, aspect, and mood.
- Passive agreementB1 — Identify the agreement controller in Hindi passives, including feminine and plural patients, को-marked patients, and expressed agents.
- Impersonal passiveC1 — Understand Hindi impersonal passives with default masculine singular agreement, से-marked experiencers, inability readings, and deliberative uses.
- Ability-like passive negativesC2 — Use से-marked experiencers with negative passive predicates to express that someone cannot manage, tolerate, or bring themselves to perform an action.
- से versus के द्वारा for agentsA2 — Choose between से and के द्वारा by distinguishing affected or induced agency from formal passive attribution.
- ने as perfective ergative markerA2 — Learn when perfective transitive clauses mark their agent with ने, how split ergativity differs from past tense, and which phrase controls agreement.