Imatges de pàgina
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Neut., nom. acc. idam, à ime, zafa imāni; the rest like the masculine.

There is another demonstrative pronoun rarely used except in the nom., of which adas is taken as the crude: nom. m. asau, "this" or "he," ami, amī; acc. amum; ins. amunā, &c.

RELATIVE PRONOUN-" who," "which."

80. The relative may be formed by simply substituting y for s and t, in the pronoun tad. Thus, crude form yad: nom. m. 4: yah, "who," yau, ye; acc. & yam, "whom," &c. यौ ये यं

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN

-"who?" "what?"

81. As the relative is formed by substituting y, so the interrogative by substituting k for s and t, in the pronoun tad. Thus, nom. m. kah, "who?" kau, ake. In the nom. neut., however, the interrogative is fai kim and not kad.* Kim is also the crude, and occurs in a few compounds; as, fa, on what

account?"

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POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS.

82. These are formed by adding the affix iya (r. 38. XI.) to the crude of the personal pronouns; as, madīya, "mine" (nom. -ah, -ā, -am); twadiya, "thine"; asmadiya, “our.” Observe, however, that the gen. case of the personal pronouns is more usually taken to express the possessive; as, Ty, "his son."

REFLEXIVE POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS.

83. ♬ swa (cf. suus), declined like sarva, r. 87. (nom. :, àì, â†), is used reflexively, in reference to all three persons, and may stand for "my own," "thy own," 'thy own," "his own," our own," &c. It often occupies the first place in a compound; thus,

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masculine nouns of the first class. This form is still preserved in the Vedas, and in accordance with this, the instr. plur. of deva (r. 48.) would be devebhih.

* Kad, however, was the old form, and is retained in a few words; such as kachchit, "perhaps"; kadartha, " useless" (" of what use?"); kadadhwan, "a bad road" ("what a road!").

† But the abl. and loc. sing. m., and nom. pl. m. may follow deva, r. 48.

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"he goes to his own house." The gen. case of ātman (p. 41.), or often the crude, is used with the same signification; as, or आत्मगृहं गच्छति. 1

84.

HONORIFIC PRONOUN.

bhavat, "your honour," requiring the 3d person of the Thus, nom. bhavan, bhavantau, bhavantah. It is used respectfully in place of the second personal pronoun; as, bhavān dharmam karotu, "let your honour practise virtue."

verb, is declined like dhanavat (r. 61.).

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INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.

85. The indeclinable affixes chit, api, and chana, added to the several cases of the interrogative pronoun, give them an indefinite signification. Thus, nom. sing. masc. kashchit, “somebody," any body"; acc. af kanchit; ins. kenachit; dat. kasmaichit; loc. fin kasminshchit (r. 20.); nom. plur. masc. kechit. So also nom. fq ko'pi, kashchana, "somebody "; ins. kenapi, &c. By prefixing, is formed the negative af, "nobody."

कश्चन

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† In the same way interrogative adverbs are made indefinite. Thus, from kati, "how many?" katichit, a few"; from kadā, "when?" kadachit, "at some time"; from katham, “how?" kathanchana, “some how."

WHOSOEVER, WHATSOEVER.

86. This is expressed by prefixing the relative pronoun to the interrogative. Thus, :f, “whosoever"; fafan, “whatकश्चित्, यत् किञ्चित्, soever. Or by repeating the relative; as, यो यः, यद् यद्.

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PRONOMINALS.

87. There are certain common adjectives which partake of the nature of pronouns, and follow the declension of tad (r. 77.). Thus,

* In modern Sanscrit nija often takes the place of swa; as, fė naf. † Prof. Lassen cites a remarkable example from the Rāmāyana, in which आत्मन् refers to the dual number. Putram ātmanah spṛiṣhṭwā nipetatuh, “they two fell down after touching their son." Anthol. p. 171.

sarva, "all": nom. masc. sarvah, sarvau, sarve; dat. sarvasmai; nom. fem. sarvā, &c.; dat. sarvasyai, &c. But the nom. neut. is sarvam, &c., not sarvad. The following are the most useful of these pronominals. Eka, "one"; prathama, "first"; dritiya, "second"; tritiya, "third"; alpa, "few"; ubha, "both"; anya, "other"; itara, "other"; katara, "which of the two?" (the three last also follow tad in the nom. and acc. neut. anyat, itarat, katarat). But some of these are optionally declined like nouns of the first class; thus, alpa, nom. plur. alpāh or alpe.

CHAPTER VI.

VERBS.

General Observations.

ALTHOUGH the Sanscrit verb will be found somewhat intricate by one who follows it through all its windings, yet such a general view of its structure as will be sufficient to answer the practical wants of the general reader may be easily given, and as easily apprehended. There is no part of the grammar so capable as this of plain exoteric explanation, whilst there is none so obscured by the esoteric and mystical teaching of native grammarians ; none, of which the general principles are so few and so close to the surface, whilst the abstruser truths, the niceties and refinements, are multiplied to an extent that tends to discourage, or even disgust the uninitiated learner. Hence it happens that the expounder of Sanscrit Grammar, who wishes to exhaust his subject, is here not only compelled to embarass and perplex an otherwise simple statement, by the diffuse exhibition of various forms, and tenses, and exceptions, which are of little utility to the ordinary student, but is forced, moreover, to bewilder the beginner by a

complication of technical phrases, conventional abbreviations, and symbolical letters, which are as puzzling at the first stage of his studies, as they may be useful in assisting his memory at a later period. And thus it is that a very false impression is formed of the difficulty of a language, the broad and useful principles of which lie wholly within the reach of the most moderate capacity. It will be the aim of the following pages to disentangle the subject, as much as possible, from this superabundant weight of mystical symbols and unusual tenses and forms, many of which exist more in the theory of grammarians than in the practice of approved writers; and although no part of the verb will be left unnoticed, the larger print will serve to attract the eye of the student to those points which are of general utility and real importance, whilst the smaller will indicate those portions of the subject which are to be reserved for after-consideration.

Although the Sanscrit verb offers the most striking and interesting analogies to the Greek, nevertheless, so peculiar and artificial is the process by which it is formed, that it would be impossible, in treating of it, to adopt an arrangement which would be likely to fall in with the preconceived notions of the classical student.

There are ten tenses. Seven of them are of common occurrence; viz. 1. the present, 2. the first preterite, 3. the potential, 4. the imperative, 5. the second preterite, 6. the first future, 7. the second future. Three are of rare occurrence; viz. 8. the third preterite, 9. the benedictive, 10. the conditional. There is also an infinitive mood, and several participles. Of these tenses the present, the three preterites, and the two futures, belong properly to the indicative mood; and the imperative, potential, benedictive, and conditional, are more properly moods than tenses. Since, however, these moods do not comprehend other tenses under them, but are susceptible of all times, present, past, and future, it can lead to no embarassment to consider them as tenses, and to arrange them indiscriminately with the others in the manner proposed above.

† Although the three preterites are used without much distinction, yet it should be observed that they properly express different degrees of past time. The first pre

terite corresponds to the imperfect of Greek and Latin verbs, and properly has reference to an event doing at some time past, and not ended. The second preterite has reference to an event done and past at some definite period. The third preterite, to an event done and past at some indefinite period, thus corresponding to the Greek aorist. So, also, the two futures properly express, the first definite, the second indefinite futurity. The potential may generally be rendered in English by some one of the auxiliaries "may," "can," "would," "should," "ought." The conditional is used after the conjunction yadi, "if": it occurs, however, but very rarely, and the potential usually supplies its place in conditional sentences. The benedictive is a tense sometimes used in praying and blessing.

The infinitive mood generally has an active, but is capable of a passive signification.

Every tense has three numbers, singular, dual, and plural.

There are two voices or systems of inflection, the one called Parasmaipada, the other Atmanepada.* The former is supposed to convey a transitive sense, the action passing parasmai, "to another "; the latter, a reflexive sense, corresponding to that conveyed by the Greek middle voice, the action reverting ātmane, "to one's self."† This distinction, however, is very rarely preserved; and we find verbs, transitive or intransitive, conjugated indifferently in the parasmaipada or ātmanepada, or both. however, the verb is conjugated in both, the atmane may then sometimes yield its appropriate meaning, and give a kind of reflexive sense, or a sense directing the action in some way to the advantage of the agent.

When,

Passive verbs are invariably conjugated in the ātmanepada.

From every root five kinds of verbs may, in theory, be elicited— a primitive, a causal, a passive, a desiderative, and intensive.

* If the term voice has reference to the system of inflection, it is obvious that there can only be two voices in Sanscrit; and although the ātmanepada, in one or two instances, has a middle sense, yet it cannot be said to correspond with the Greek middle voice, the chief characteristic of which is, that it takes a middle inflection, partly active, partly passive.

†The words parasmaipada and ātmanepada will often be contracted into par., ātm.

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