IX. Accented yȧ-class: Passive conjugation.

768. A certain form of present-stem, inflected with middle endings, is used only with a passive meaning, and is formed from all roots for which there is occasion to make a passive conjugation. Its sign is an accented yȧ added to the root: thus,

hanya from Vhan, äpyá from V श्राप् @p, गृह्ण grhya from V गृद् grh (or grah) : and so on, without any reference to the class according to which the active and middle forms are made.

769. The form of the root to which the passive-sign is added is (since the accent is on the sign) the weak one: thus, a penultimate nasal is dropped, and any abbreviation which is made in the weak forms of the perfect (794), in the aorist optative (922b), or before ta of the passive participle (954), is made also in the passive present-system: thus, ajyá from Vañj, badhya from bandh, ucyá from Vvac, jyá from Vyaj.

770. On the other hand, a final vowel of a root is in general liable to the same changes as in other parts of the verbal system where it is followed by y: thus,

a. i and u final are lengthened: thus, mīyú from √mi; sūyú from √su; b. a final is usually changed to i: thus, diyá from уdā; hiyú from Vhā: but jñāyá from Vjñā, khyāyú from уkhyā;

c. final is in general changed to ri: thus, kriya from Vkṛ; but if preceded by two consonants (and also, it is claimed, in the root r), it has instead the guna-strengthening: thus, smaryá from Vsmṛ, staryú from ystṛ; and in those roots which show a change of r to ir and ur (so-called verbs: see 242), that change is made here also, and the vowel is lengthened: thus, çirya from Ver; pūryú from Vpṛ.

771. The inflection of the passive-stem is precisely like that of the other a-stems; it differs only in accent from that of the class last given. It may be here presented, therefore, in the same abbreviated form:

.

Example of inflection: root kr, 'make'; passivestem fahu kriya:

2. Present Subjunctive.

The forms noticed as occurring in the older language are alone here instanced:

No forms of the passive optative chance to occur in RV. or AV.; they are found, however, in the Brāhmaṇas.

This is made with the suffix 4 māna: thus, feu

kriyȧmāņa.

In use, this participle is well distinguished from the other passive participle by its distinctively present meaning: thus, kṛtá, 'done'; but kriyámāṇa, 'in process of doing', or 'being done'.

The passive-sign is never resolved into ia in the Veda.

772. The roots tan and khan usually form their passives from parallel roots in a thus, tayáte, khayáte (but also tanyáte, khanyáte). The corresponding form to Vjan, namely jayate (above, 761 b), is apparently a transfer to the preceding class.

773. By their form, mriyáte, 'he dies', and dhriyáte, 'he maintains himself, is steadfast', are passives from the roots mṛ, 'die', and dhṛ, 'hold'; although neither is used in a proper passive sense, and my is not transitive except in the derivative form mr (above, 731). With them are to be compared the stems ā-driyá and a-priyá (above, 757), which may possibly be

peculiar adaptations of meaning of passives from the roots pr, 'fill', and dr, 'scatter'.

774. Instances are occasionally found in the later language of an apparent assumption of active instead of middle endings by passive persons of the present-system. Probably, however, these are rather to be regarded as examples of transfer to the ya-class, such as were considered above (761b). 775. As was pointed out above (607), the formation and inflection of stems in áya (the tenth or cur-class of the Hindu grammarians) will be treated under the head of secondary conjugation (chap. XIV.), along with the intensive and desiderative formations, because, in all alike, the stem is not a present-stem merely, but has been extended also into other tense-systems.

Uses of the Present and Imperfect.

776. The uses of the mode-forms of the present-system have been already briefly treated in the preceding chapter (572 ff.). The tense-uses of the two indicative tenses, present and imperfect, call here for only a word or two of explanation.

777. The present has, besides its strictly present use, the same side-uses which belong in general to the tense: namely, the expression of habitual action, of future action, and of past in lively narration.

a. Examples of future meaning are: abruvan hṛṣṭā gachāmo vayam api (MBh.), 'they said with gladness, "we will go too"; agnir ātmabhavam prādād yatra vāñchati nāiṣadhaḥ (MBh.), 'Agni gave his own presence wherever the Nishadhan should desire'.

b. Examples of past meaning are: úttarā súr údharaḥ putrú āsīd dánuḥ çaye sahávatsā ná dhenúḥ (RV.), 'the mother was over, the son under; there Dānu lies, like a cow with her calf'; prahasanti ca tāṁ kecid abhyasūyanti cā 'pare akurvata dayāṁ kecit (MBh.), 'some ridicule her, some revile her, some pitied her'; tato yasya vacanāt tatrā 'valambitās tam sarve tiraskurvanti (H.), 'thereupon they all fall to reproaching him by whose advice they had alighted there'.

778. In connection with certain particles, the present has rather more definitely the value of a past tense. Thus :

a. With purá, 'formerly': thus, saptarṣin u ha sma vūí purú rkshū íty ácakṣate (CB.), 'the seven sages, namely, are of old called the bears'; tanmātram api cen mahyaṁ na dadāti purā bhavān (MBh.), 'if you have never before given me even an atom'.

b. With the asseverative particle sma: thus, crúmeņa ha sma vāí tád devá jayanti yád eṣāṁ jáyyam ású rṣayaç ca (ÇB.), 'for, in truth, both gods and sages were wont to win by penance what was to be won'; āviṣṭaḥ kalinā dyūte jiyate sma nalas tadā (MBh.), 'then Nala, being possessed by Kali, was beaten in play'.

No example of this construction is found in either RV. or AV., or elsewhere in the metrical parts of the Veda. In the Brahmanas, only habitual action is expressed by it (Delbrück). In all periods of the language, the use of sma with a verb as pure asseverative particle, with no effect on the tense-meaning, is very common; and the examples later are hardly to be distinguished from the present of lively narration of which the whole construction is doubtless a form.

779. The imperfect has remained unchanged in value through the whole history of the language: it is the tense of narration; it expresses simple past time, without any other implication.

Compare what is said later (end of chap. X. and chap. XI.) as to the value of the other past tenses, the perfect and aorist.

CHAPTER X.

THE PERFECT-SYSTEM.

780. THE perfect-system in the later language, as has been seen above (535), consists only of an indicative tense and a participle - both of them in the two voices, active and middle.

In the oldest language, the perfect has also its modes and its augment-preterit, or pluperfect, or is not less full in its apparatus of forms than is the present-system.

781. The formation of the perfect is essentially alike in all verbs, differences among them being of only subordinate consequence, or having the character of irregularities. The characteristics of the formation are these:

a. a stem made by reduplication of the root;

b. a distinction between stronger and weaker forms of stem, the former being used (as in presents of the First conjugation) in the singular active, the latter in all other

persons;

c. endings in some respects peculiar, unlike those of the present;

d. the frequent use, especially in the later language, of a union-vowel i between stem and endings.

782. Reduplication. In roots beginning with a consonant, the reduplication which forms the perfect-stem is of the same character with that which forms the presentstem of the reduplicating conjugation-class (II.: see 643) - but with this exception, that radicala anda and

(or ar) have only a, and never, as vowel of the reduplicating syllable: thus, from a pr, 'fill', comes the present-stem fa pipr, but the perfect-stem q papṛ ; from y, 'measure', comes the present-stem 441 mimā, but the perfect-stem 44 mamā; and so on.

Irregularities of roots with initial consonants will be given below, 784. 783. For roots beginning with a vowel, the rules of reduplication are these:

a. A root with initial a before a single final consonant repeats the a, which then fuses with the radical vowel to a (throughout the whole inflection): thus, ād from y श्रद् ad; and in like manner श्राज्ञ् @j, श्रान् (an, श्रास् as, श्राहू āh.

The root forms likewise throughout ār (as if from घर ar).

b. A root with i or 3 u before a single final consonant follows the same analogy, except in the strong forms (sing. act.), where the vowel of the radical syllable has guna, becoming e oro; before this, the reduplicating vowel maintains its independent form, and is separated from the radical syllable by its own semivowel: thus, from y is comes is in weak forms, but zu iyes in strong; from V उच्uc, in like manner, come ऊच् ûc and उवोच् uvoc.

The root, a single vowel, falls under this rule, and forms ईय् iy and इये iye.

c. Roots which begin with vowels long by nature or by position do not in general make a perfect-system, but use instead a periphrastic formation, in which the perfect tense