b. But before स् s and त् t of 2d and 3d sing. act. is in the later language always inserted an ई ī, making the endings ईस् īs and ईत् īt.
c. This insertion is unknown in the earliest language (of the RV.): see below, 888.
881. a. Before endings beginning with t or th, the tense-sign s is (233 c–e) omitted after the final consonant of a root — unless this be r, or n or m (converted to anusvāra).
b. The same omission is of course made before dhvam after a consonant; and after a vowel the sibilant is either omitted or assimilated (the equivalence of dhv and ddhv in the theories of the grammarians and the practice of the manuscripts makes it impossible to say which: 232); and then the ending becomes ḍhvam, provided the sibilant, if retained, would have been ṣ (226 c): thus, astoḍhvam and avṛḍhvam (beside astoṣata and avṛṣata); dṛḍhvam (√dṛ regard: ÇB., once), which is to dṛthās (2d sing.) as avṛḍhvam and avṛṣata to avri and avṛthās; and kṛḍhvam (M.).
c. According to the grammarians, the omission of s before t and th takes place also after a short vowel (the case can occur only in the 2d and 3d sing. mid.); but we have seen above (834 a) that this is to be viewed rather as a substitution in those persons of the forms of the root-aorist. Neither in the earlier nor in the later language, however, does any example occur of an aorist-form with s retained after a short vowel before these endings.
d. After the final sonant aspirate of a root, the sibilant before the same endings is said by the Hindu grammarians to disappear altogether, the combination of the aspirate with the th or t of the ending being then made according to the ordinary rule for such cases (160): thus, from the stem arāuts, for arāudh-s, is made arāuddha, as if from arāudh+ta directly. No example of such a form is quotable from the literature; but the combination is established by the occurrence of other similar cases (233 f). In the middle, in like manner, aruts+ta becomes aruddha, as if from arudh+ta; but all such forms admit also of being understood as of the root-aorist. Those that have been found to occur were given above (834 d); probably they belong at least in part to this aorist.
e. From the three nasal roots gam, tan, man are made the 2d and 3d sing. mid. persons agathās and agata, atathās and atata, and amata (amathās not quotable), reckoned by the native grammarians as s-aorist forms, made, after loss of their final root-nasal, with loss also of the sibilant after a short vowel. They are doubtless better referred to the root-aorist. But JB. has a corresponding 1st sing. atasi from √tan.
882. As examples of the inflection of this variety of
