Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/363



941. The conditional is the rarest of all the forms of the Sanskrit verb. The RV. has but a single example, was going to carry off, and none of the Vedic texts furnishes another. In the Brāhmaṇas it is hardly more common — except in ÇB., where it is met with more than fifty times. Nor does it, like the future, become more frequent later: not an example occurs in Nala, Bhagavad-Gītā, or Hitopadeça; only one in Manu; and two in Çakuntalā. In the whole MBh. (Holtzmann) it is found about twenty-five times, from thirteen roots. The middle forms are extremely few.

942. a. This formation contains only a single indicative active tense (or also middle: see 947), without modes, or participle, or preterit.

b. It consists in a derivative nomen agentis, having the value of a future active participle, and used, either with or without an accompanying auxiliary, in the office of a verbal tense with future meaning.

943. The noun is formed by the suffix तृ (or तर् ); and this (as in its other than verbal uses: see 1182) is added to the root either directly or with a preceding auxiliary vowel इ, the root itself being strengthened by , but the accent resting on the suffix: thus, दातृ  from √दा  give; कर्तृ  from √कृ  make; भवितृ  from √भू  be.

a. As regards the presence or absence of the vowel, the usage is said by the grammarians to be generally the same as in the -future from the same root (above, 935). The most important exception is that the roots in take no : thus,  (against ); roots  and  show the same difference; while, and  have  here, though