Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/421

 VII. VERB. INFINITIVE. form is much commoner) occur in the RV. and about the same number of others in the AV.: át-tum (AV.) 'to eat', ó-tum 'to weave', kár-tum (AV.) 'to make', ni-kartum (Kh. Iv. 525) 'to overcome', khán-i-tum (VS. XI. 10) 'to dig', dă-tum 'to give', drás-tum (AV.) 'to see', prás-țum 'to ask', prá-bhar-tum 'to present', yắc-i-tum (AV.) 'to ask for', ánu prá-volhum 'to advance, spárdh-i-tum (AV.) 'to contend with'2. 3. Ablative-Genitive Infinitive. 587. This infinitive is formed in two ways, like the accusative in- finitive, either from a radical stem or from a verbal noun in -tu (from which a dative and an acc. infinitive are also formed) 3. The former, therefore, ends in -as, the latter in -tos. As these endings are both ablative and genitive in form, the cases can only be distinguished syntactically. The ablative use is by this criterion shown to preponderate considerably. a. The -as form has the ablative sense almost exclusively, as is indicated by its being employed with words governing the ablative, viz. the adnominal prepositions rté 'without', purá 'before', and the verbs pā- 'protect' tra- 'rescue', bhi 'fear'. It occurs with the same kind of attraction as appears with the dative infinitive: thus trådhvam kartád ava-pád-as (11. 296) + 'save ns from the pit, from falling down (into it)'. There are six such ablatives in the RV.: a-trd-as being pierced', ava-pád-as ‘falling down', sam-pýc-as 'coming in contact', abhi-śrís-as 'binding', abhi-śvás-as blowing', ati-şkád-as 'leaping across'. 4 a. There seems also to be at least one example (11.286) of the genitive use, viz. ni-miş-as .. ise 'I am able to wink', the construction of Vis being the same as with the genitive infinitive in -tos (ba). Another instance is perhaps a-pic-as 'to fill’' (võII. 40⁹). 411 b. Of the infinitives in -tos occurring in the RV. some six are shown by the construction to be ablatives. They are: é-tos 'going', gán-tos 'going', jáni-tos 'being born', ni-dha-tos 'putting down', sár-i-tos being shattered', só-tos 'pressing', hán-tos 'being struck'; perhaps also vás-tos (1. 174³)5. a. Three infinitives in -tos have the genitive sense, viz. kár-tos 'doing' (with madhyá) 6, dá-tos 'giving', and yó-tos 'warding off' (both with zs- 'have power'). In two passages in which ise governs the infinitive attraction of the object appears as with the dative infinitive: íše rayáḥ suvíryasya dátos (VII. 46) he has power over wealth (and) brave sons, over giving (them)', i. e. 'he has power to give wealth and brave sons'; also yásya iše..yótos (VI. 18¹¹) 'whom he can ward off'7. 4. Locative Infinitive. 588. This form of the infinitive is rare, since thirteen or fourteen examples at the most occur. Several of these are, however, indistinguishable in meaning from ordinary locatives of verbal nouns8. a. Five or six of these locatives are formed from radical stems: vy-ús-i 'at the dawning', sam-cáks-i 'on beholding', drs-i and sam-dis-i 'on seeing', budh-i 'at the waking. As these nearly always govern a genitive, they are preferably to be explained as simple locatives of verbal nouns. I See above 585, 4. 2 See the list in WOLFF p. 68--71. 3 Above 585, 4 and 586. 4 Cp. also VIII. 1¹²: purá jatrúbhya ā-týdas before the cartilages being pierced'. 5 See WOLFF II. 6 On this word see WOLFF 14, who thinks [it governs the ablative rather than the genitive. 7 See DELBRÜCK, Altindische Syntax p. 418, and cp. WOLFF 58. 8 Cp. DELBRÜCK 212 (p. 227) and WHITNEY 985.