Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/384

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. pluperfect by difference of reduplication when the root contains a orr, and often by meaning. a. The characteristic feature of this aorist is the almost invariable quantitative sequence of a long reduplicative and a short radical vowel (-). The vowels ă, Ť, !¹, as well as ž, are reduplicated with i2, which (unless it becomes long by position) is lengthened if the radical vowel is (or is made) prosodically short; e. g. á-jijan-a-t from jan- 'beget'; á-vīvydh-a-t from vṛdh- 'grow', but ciksip-a-s from ksip- 'throw'. 374 In order to bring about this trochaic rhythm, the radical vowel has to be shortened or the nasal dropped in the roots vas 'bellow', sadh- 'succeed', hīd be hostile', krand- ‘cry ouť', jambh- ‘crush', randh- 'subject', syand- ‘flow', srams- ‘fall’'; e. g. avīvasat, acikradat. In jihvaratam (TS.) the reduplicative vowel, being already long by position, is unnecessarily lengthened. I. In a few forms the reduplicative vowel is, contrary to the prevailing rhythmic rule, left short: jigrtám and jigrtá (beside ájīgar); didhṛtam and ririşas (beside rīrişas). On the other hand, in the isolated injunctive form didipas 3, the radical vowel remains long, and in ámimet both the reduplicative and the radical syllable are long (beside mimayat with the regular rhythm). 2. The p of the causative stems jñā-paya-, sthā-paya-, hā-paya, ar-paya- (r- ‘go¹), is retained in the aorist, the radical vowel being at the same time reduced to i in the first three: ajijnipat (TS.), átişthipat, jihipas; thes of the causative stem bhīṣaya- is also retained: bībhiş-as (TS.). 3. The root dyut- 'shine', reduplicates with i: adidyutat. In the aorist formed from the causative stem arpaya-, the reduplicative i appears after, instead of before, the radical vowel, doubtless owing to the difficulty caused by the initial a and the augment: arp-i-p-am (AV.). The initial a also led to the anomaly of reduplicating the whole of the root am 'injure', and then prefixing the augment: ām-am-at. 4. There are three anomalous aorists formed from naś- 'be lost', pat- 'fall', and vac- 'speak', in which besides an irregular reduplicative vowel, the radical à is syncopated (a-pap-t-at, á-ne-s-an) or contracted (á-voc-at). As beside the former two the regular redupli- cated aorists apipatat and anīnaśat occur, and as all three have the regular reduplicative vowel a of the perfect 5, they appear to have been originally pluperfects which before being shortened had the form of *a-papat-até, *á-nanas-at, *á-vavac-at. But they all came to be regarded as aorists. This is undoubted in the case of avocat owing to its numerous mood forms; ápaptat, moreover, has an imperative form beside it; and ánešan (TS VS.) has a distinctly aoristic meaning. b. The reduplicated aorist in the great majority of forms makes its stems with a thematic -a-. Before this, a final y regularly, and 7 and u in two or three forms, take Guna; e. g. adīdhar-a-t ( √ dhṛ-), bībhay-a-t ( √ bhī-), cucyav-a-t (Vcyu-), dudráv-a-t (dru-). The inflexion of this aorist stem is like that of an imperfect of the a- conjugation. c. About a dozen roots, however, have occasional forms from stems made without thematic -a-, the inflexion then being like that of an imper- fect of the reduplicating class. These roots are ma- 'bellow'; śri- 'resort'; tu- 'be strong', dru- 'run', dhu- ‘shake', nu- ‘praise', pū- 'cleanse', yu- 'separate', I In Vklp, the only root in which it occurs. 2 In the reduplicating present class is almost invariably, and a predominantly, re- duplicated with i (457). 3 In form this might be a pluperfect. A similar reversal of the ordinary rhythm appears in the three forms átatamsatam (1. 1207), adadhāvat (IX. 877), vaváksať (SV. 1. 1, 2, 2, 3 var. lect. for vaváksa of RV. x. 115¹) each occurring once, but owing to the reduplica- tive vowel they should rather be accounted pluperfects. Cp. p. 364, note ¹5. 4 See 514, note ¹. 5 That is, nes- for nanas-, on the analogy of sed- for *sazd- in the perfect: this form of contraction would be unique in an original aorist. € Like a-sasvaj-at; becoming a-papt-at like a-cakr-at beside cakar-am. 7 The cause of the anomalous contraction may be due to the awkwardness of com- bining the augment with the reduced redupli- cative syllable u- of the perfect (*a-uvac-at). The accentuation of the augment would also favour the second syllable taking Sampra- sāraṇa: á-va-uc-at.