Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/386

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

known in AV., and very rare elsewhere in the older language; tvā́ya is found nine times in RV. (only once outside the tenth Book), twice in AV., and but half-a-dozen times elsewhere (in ÇB., once from a causative stem: spāçayitvā́ya). The historical relation of the three forms is obscure.

c. Two other gerund suffixes, tvānam and tvīnam. are mentioned by the grammarians as of Vedic use, but they have nowhere been found to occur.

994. The use of this gerund, though not changing in its character, becomes much more frequent, and even excessive, in the later language.

a. Thus, in the Nala and Bhagavad-Gītā, which have only one tenth as many verb-forms as RV., there are more than three times as many examples of the gerund as in the latter.

b. In general, the gerund is an adjunct to the subject of a sentence, and expresses an act or condition belonging to the subject: thus, vajreṇa hatvā́ nír apáḥ sasarja (RV.) smiting with his thunderbolt, he poured forth the waters; pītvī́ sómasya vāvṛdhe (RV.) having drunk of the soma, he waxed strong; tē yajñásya rásaṁ dhītvā́ vidúhya yajñáṁ yūpéna yopayitvā́ tirò ‘bhavan (ÇB.) having sucked out the sap of the offering, having milked the offering dry, having blocked it with the sacrificial post, they disappeared; çrutvāi ’va cā ’bruvan (MBh.) and having heard, they said; taṁ ca dūre dṛṣṭvā gardabhī ’yam iti matvā dhāvitaḥ (H.) and having seen him in the distance, thinking 'it is a she-ass', he ran.

c. But if the logical subject, the real agent, is put by the construction of the sentence in a dependent case, it is still qualified by the gerund: thus, stríyaṁ dṛṣṭvā́ya kitaváṁ tatāpa (RV.) it distresses the gambler (i. e. the gambler is distressed) at seeing a woman; táṁ hāi ’naṁ dṛṣṭvā́ bhī́r viveda (ÇB.) fear came upon him (i. e. he was afraid) when he saw him; vidhāya proṣite vṛttim (M.) when he stays away after providing for her support; kiṁ nu me syād idaṁ kṛtvā (MBh.) what, I wonder, would happen to me if I did this; — and especially, when a passive form is given to the sentence, the gerund qualifies the agent in the instrumental case (282 a): thus, tataḥ çabdād abhijñāya sa vyāghreṇa hataḥ (H.) thereupon he was slain by the tiger, who recognized him by his voice; tvayā sa rājā çakuntalām puraskṛtya vaktavyaḥ (Ç.) presenting Çakuntalā, thou must say to the king; haṅsānāṁ vacanaṁ çrutvā yathā me (gen. for instr.) nāiṣadho vṛtaḥ (MBh.) as the Nishadhan was chosen by me on hearing the words of the swans: this construction is extremely common in much of the later Sanskrit.

d. Occasionally, the gerund qualifies an agent, especially an indefinite one, that is unexpressed: thus, tadā ’trāi ’va paktvā khāditavyaḥ (H.) then he shall be eaten [by us] cooking him on the spot; yad anyasya parijñāya punar anyasya dīyate (M.) that, after being promised (lit. when one has promised her) to one, she is given again to another; sucintya co ’ktaṁ suvicārya yat kṛtam (H.) what one says after mature thought,