726. It has been pointed out above that augmentless persons of this tense are in part indistinguishable in form from subjunctive and optative persons. Such as certainly belong here are (in V.) kṣiṇām; açnan, riṇán; gṛbhṇata, vṛṇata. The AV. has once minīt instead of mināt. MBh. has açnīs after mā.
a. AB. has the false form ajānīmas, and in AA. occurs avṛṇīta as 3d plural.
727. The roots which form their present-systems, wholly or in part, after the manner of this class, are over fifty in number: but, for about three fifths of them, the forms are quotable only from the older language, and for half-a-dozen they make their first appearance later; for less than twenty are they in use through the whole life of the language, from the Veda down.
a. As to secondary a-stems, see 731.
Irregularities of the nā-class.
728. a. The roots ending in ū shorten that vowel before the class-sign: thus, from √pū, punā́ti and punīté; in like manner also jū, dhū, lū.
b. The root vlī (B.S.) forms either vlīnā or vlinā.
729. The root grabh or grah (the former Vedic) is weakened to gṛbh or gṛh.
a. As the perfect also in weak forms has gṛbh or gṛh, it is not easy to see why the grammarians should not have written ṛ instead of ra in the root.
730. a. A few of the roots have a more or less persistent nasal in forms outside the present-system; such are without nasal before the class-sign: thus, grath or granth, badh or bandh, math or manth, skabh or skambh, stabh or stambh.
b. The root jñā also loses its nasal before the class-sign: thus, jānā́ti, jānīté.
731. Not rarely, forms showing a transfer to the a-conjugation are met with: thus, even in RV., minati, minat, aminanta, from √mi[errata 1]; in AV., çṛṇa from √çṛ; later, gṛhṇa, jāna, prīṇa, mathna, etc. And from roots pṛ and mṛ are formed the stems pṛṇá and mṛṇá, which are inflected after the manner of the á-class, as if from roots pṛṇ and mṛṇ.
732. In the Veda, an apparently denominative inflection of a stem in āyá is not infrequent beside the conjugation of roots of this class: thus, gṛbhāyá, mathāyáti, açrathāyas, skabhāyáta, astabhāyat, pruṣāyánte, muṣāyát, and so on. See below, 1066 b.
