SYNTAX OF PASSIVE VERBS.

199. The prevalence of a passive construction is the most remarkable feature in the syntax of this language. Passive verbs are joined with the agent, instrument, or cause, in the instrumental case,* and agree with the object in number and person; as, रज उडूयते, “the dust is raised by the wind "; तेन सर्व्वद्रव्याणि सज्जी क्रियन्तां, "let all things be prepared by him"; for wife, “the sun was concealed by arrows." But the passive participle, as elsewhere observed, usually takes the place of the past tenses of the passive verb, and agrees with the object in gender as well as number ; as, नेत्राणि समाश्रुतानि वारिणा, “ (their) eyes were suffused with tears";( being understood), "it was said by him." This is the favourite construction of Sanscrit prose composition, and the love for this idiom is very remarkably displayed in such phrases as the following : दुःखेन गम्यते, “ he is gone to by misery," for दुखं गच्छति ; and आगम्यतां दवेन, “ let it be come by your majesty, ” for आगच्छतु देव: ; and again, अस्माभिर् एकत्र स्थीयतां, “ let it be remained by us in one spot," for "let us remain in one spot ";

u zÝ

,"by whatever road it is desired, by that let it be gone."

a. Active or causal verbs, which take a double accusative, will retain one accusative when constructed passively; but the other accusative passes into a nominative case : thus, instead of ♬ ai ygunfu sana, "he addressed me in harsh words," may be written तेन अहं परुषाणि उक्तः, “by him I was addressed in harsh words.”

SYNTAX OF THE INFINITIVE.

200. The student must guard against supposing that the infinitive, in Sanscrit, may be used with the same latitude as in other languages. Its use is very limited, corresponding rather to that of the Latin supines, as, indeed, its termination um may be supposed to indicate. And this restriction in the employment of a part of speech so important, might be expected to cripple very seriously the syntactical capabilities of the language, were it not that the power of compounding words abundantly compensates for any such deficiency. Let the student, therefore, accurately distin

* There are a few instances of the agent in the genitive case; as, ĦĦ чri, "a crime committed by me," for 41.

guish between the infinitive of Sanscrit, and the infinitive of the classical languages. In these latter we have this part of speech constantly made the subject of a proposition; or, in other words, standing in the place of a nominative, and an accusative case often admissible before it. We have it also assuming different forms, to express present, past, or future time, and completeness or incompleteness in the progress of the action. The Sanscrit infini

*

tive, on the other hand, can never be made the subject or nominative case to a verb, admits of no accusative before it, and can only express indeterminate time and incomplete action. Wherever it occurs it must always be considered as the object, and never the subject, of some verb expressed or understood. And as the object of the verb, it may be regarded as equivalent to an indeclinable substantive, in which the force of two cases, an accusative and dative, is inherent, and which differs from other substantives in its power of governing a case. Its use as a substantive with the force of the accusative case corresponds to one use of the Latin infinitive; thus, aq að aìga zaufa, "I desire to hear all that," “id audire cupio," where and audire are both equivalent to accusative cases, themselves also governing an accusative. Similarly, रोदितुं प्रवृत्ता. " she began to weep"; and महीं जेतुम् आरेभे, “he began to conquer the earth," where a, “he began the conquest of the earth," would be equally correct. But the Sanscrit infinitive appears most commonly in the character of a substantive with the force of a dative case; or, in other words, will be found in most instances to involve a sense which belongs especially to the Sanscrit dative, viz. that of the end or purpose for which any thing is done, and which it would often be equally idiomatic to express by that case; thus, शावकान् भक्षितुम् आगच्छति, “he comes to devour the young ones "; शत्रून् योद्धुं सैन्यं प्राहिणोत्, “he sent an army to fight the enemy." In these cases it would be equally correct in Sanscrit to substitute for the infinitive the dative case of the verbal noun formed with the affix ana; thus, भक्षणाय,

तु

* Bopp considers the termination of the infinitive to be the accusative of the affix and it is certain that in the Vedas an irregular infinitive in and is found, which would seem to be the dative of the same affix. See Panini 3. 4. 9.

"for the eating";

"for the fighting"; and in Latin the infinitive could not be used at all, but either the supine, devoratum, pugnatum, or still more properly, the conjunction with the subjunctive mood, “ut devoret," " ut pugnarent." The following are other examples in which the infinitive has a dative force in expressing the purpose of the action: पानीयं पातुं नदीम् अगमत्, “he went to the river to drink water "; मम बन्धनं छेनुम् उपसर्पति, “he comes to cut asunder my bonds "; मां त्रातुं समर्थः (अस्ति being understood), "he is able to rescue me";

fj aumi बभूव, "he

busied himself about collecting together the snares."

a. The Sanscrit infinitive, therefore, rather deserves the name of a supine than an infinitive, and in its character of supine is susceptible of either an active or passive signification. In its passive character, however, like the Latin supine in u, it is joined with certain words only, the most usual being the passive verb

,"to be able," and its derivatives; thus, a dý ved, “ the_snare_cannot be cut"; न शक्याः समाधातुं ते दोषाः, “those evils cannot be remedied." The following are other instances: कारयितुम् आरब्धः, “the shed was begun to be built "; राज्ये अभिषेकुं भवान् निरूपितः, facfun, “your honour has been selected to be inaugurated to the kingdom"; fa, “it deserves to be done” (Naishadiya, 5. 112.); gf, "improper to be done" कर्तुम् अनुचितं, (cf. factu in

dignum and ποιεῖν αἰσχρόν).

b. The root, to deserve," when used in combination with an infinitive, is usually equivalent to an entreaty or respectful imperative; as,

वक्तुम्

fa, “deign (or simply be pleased') to tell us our duties." It sometimes has the force of the Latin debet; as, न मादृशी त्वाम् अभिभाष्टुम् अर्हति "such a person as I ought not to address you"; न एनं शोचितुम् अर्हसि, "you ought not to

bewail him."

c. The infinitive is sometimes joined with the noun, "desire," to form a kind of compound adjective, expressive of the "wish to do any thing," and the final m of the infinitive is then rejected; thus, :, -, -Ħ, “desirous of seeing"; :, -, -, “wishing to conquer."

USE AND CONNEXION OF THE TENSES.

201. PRESENT TENSE. This tense, besides its proper use, is frequently used for the future; as,&f, "whither shall I go ?" कदा त्वां पश्यामि, when shall I see thee?"

a. In narration it is commonly used for the past tense; as, स भूमिं स्पृष्ट्वा कणौ स्पृशति ब्रूते च, “he, having touched the ground, fee touches his ears and says."

b. It may denote habitual or repeated action; as, मृगः प्रत्यहं तत्र गत्वा शस्यं खादति, "the deer going there every day was in the habit of eating the corn"; यदा स मूषिकशब्दं शृणोति तदा विडालं संवर्द्धयति, “ whenever he heard the noise

of the mouse then he would feed the cat."

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c. It is usually found after यावत् ; as, यावन् मे दन्ता न त्रुट्यन्ति तावत् तव पाशं fafa, “as long as my teeth do not break, so long will I gnaw asunder your fetters." (Cf. the use of dum).

d. The present tense of the root, "to sit,” “remain,” is used with the present participle of another verb to denote continuous or simultaneous action; as,

पशूनां बधं कुर्व्वन् आस्ते, “he keeps making a slaughter of the beasts"; मम पश्चाद् आगच्छन्न् , “he is in the act of coming after me."

e. The particle, when used with the present, gives it the force of a perfect; as, प्रविशन्ति रम पुरी, “they entered the city.”

202. FIRST PRETERITE.—Although this tense properly has reference to past incomplete action, and has been so rendered in the examples given at pp. 101-128., yet the student must guard against supposing that this is its usual force. It is most commonly used to denote indefinite past time, without any necessary connexion with another action ; as, अर्थं महीतुं यत्नम् अकरखं, “ I made an effort to collect wealth," not necessarily, "I was making."

203. POTENTIAL.-The name of this tense is no guide to its numerous uses. Perhaps its most common force is that of fitness in phrases, where in Latin we should expect to find oportet with the infinitive; as, आगतं भयं वीक्ष्य नरः कुर्य्याद् यथोचितं, “having beheld danger actually present, a man should act in a becoming

manner.

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a. It is also employed, as might be expected, in indefinite general expressions; as, यस्य यो भावः स्यात्, “ whatever may be the disposition of any one"; यदा राजा स्वयं न कुर्य्यात् कार्य्यदर्शनं, “ when the king may not himself make investigation of the case"; अप्राप्तकालवचनं ब्रुवन् प्राप्नुयाद् अपमानं, “ by uttering unseasonable words one may meet with dishonour."

b. Especially in conditional sentences; as, यदि राजा दण्डं न प्रणयेत् स्वाम्यं कस्मिंश्चिन् न स्यात् सर्व्वसेतवश्च भिद्येरन्, “ if the king were not to inflict punishment, ownership would remain with nobody, and all barriers would be broken

down." Sometimes the conjunction is omitted; as,, "should it not be so";

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:, "do

c. The potential often occurs as a softened imperative, this language, in common with others in the East, being averse to the more abrupt form; thus, thou go,” for गच्छ ; and अद्यात् फलानि, “ let him eat fruits,” for अन्तु. 204. IMPERATIVE. This tense yields the usual force of command" or "entreaty "; as, Tafaf, "take courage";, not must be used in prohibition; as, w m qfe, "do not tell a falsehood." The first person is used to express necessity, see example, r. 172.

"remember me." and

a. It is sometimes employed in conditional phrases to express contingency; as, egancife ai nef, "permit me (and) I will go,” i.e. "if you will permit me, I will go "; 14, “if you command me I will kill the villain"; sygni à qa q, “if you give me a promise of security I will go."

205. SECOND PRETERITE.—As observed at p. 57., this tense is properly used to express an action done at some definite period of past time ; as, कौशल्यादयो नृपतिं दशरथं चक्रन्दुः, “Kaushalyā and the others bewailed king Dasharatha.” It is frequently, however, employed indeterminately.

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206. FIRST FUTURE. This tense expresses definite futurity; as, तासु दिक्षु कामस्य फलं लब्यासि, “ in those regions thou shalt obtain the fruit of thy desire"; but is rarely found.

207. SECOND FUTURE. This tense, although properly indefinite, is employed to express all degrees and kinds of futurity, immediate or remote, definite or indefinite; as, чf, “thou shalt drink sweet water "; तत्र अवश्यं पत्नी द्रक्ष्यति, “ there certainly he will see his wife."

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a. It is sometimes used for the imperative; as, e ti ng greyfa, whatever is to be given that you will give " (do thou give).

208. THIRD PRETERITE.—This tense properly expresses time indefinitely past; as, :, "there lived (in former times) a king." It is not, however, often used as a past tense by earlier writers, but is frequently employed to supply the place of the imperative, after the prohibitive particle or, the augment being omitted ; as, मा कृथाः, “ do not make "; मा त्याक्षीः समयं, “ do not lose the opportunity "; मास्म अनृतं वादी:, “ do not tell an truth";, "do not be angry ";

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66

:,

"do not grieve";

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un

f:, "do not injure."