Saturday 15 June 2013

Sanskrit Grammar: The Periphrastic Perfect

Roots of a certain kind do not form the ordinary reduplicated perfect.  These roots have an initial vowel that is गुरु either by nature (itself long or संयुक्त) or by position (preceding a conjunct consonant). The perfect for these is formed with a fixed nominal and a variable verbal form. It's actually quite simple. The nominal element is formed by suffixing - आम् directly to the root. This is then followed by the appropriate लिट् of अस् कृ and sometimes भू in parasmaipada. In Ātmanepada, only कृ is used.

Let's see some examples of the  Ātmanepada first:

आस् + आम्+चक्रे 
आसां चक्रे he/she sat   

एध् +आम् + चक्रे
एधां चक्रे he/she grew

In parasmaipada you would get:

आस् +आम् +आस 
आसामास 
or
आस् +आम् +चकार 
आसांचकार 
or
आस् +आम् + बभूव 
आसांबभूव 

The periphrastic perfect used with verbs from the 10th गण (चुरादि). Except here the  आम् is added to the present stem rather than to the root. Let's see some examples:

चुर् --->चोरय + आम् + आस = चोरयामास he stole
चिन्त्  ---> चिन्तय + आम् + आस = चिन्तयामास  he thought, he considered


  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the saMskRta name of this "Periphrastic" tense? The Engl. peri-phrasis is >Gk. "around-talking"--using two words where one would do. Kale and other grammars use only the word "periphrastic" (which is itself somewhat periphrastic).

gaurav said...

आस् +आम् +आस
आस् +आम् +चकार
आस् +आम् + बभूव

Do all these mean "He/She sat"?

If yes, then how will I write "I sat" and "you sat" ?