847. The a-aorist makes in the RV. a small figure beside the root-aorist, being represented by less than half the latter's number of roots. It becomes, however, more common later (it is the only form of aorist which is made from more verbs in AV. than in RV.); and in Veda and Brāhmaṇa together about eighty roots exhibit the formation more or less fully. Of these a large number (fully half) are of the type of the roots which make their present-system according to the á-class, having a vowel capable of guṇa-strengthening before a final consonant (754): thus, with i, chid, bhid, nij, ric, riṣ, lip, vid, 1 çiṣ (çās), 2 çiṣ, çriṣ, çliṣ, sic, sridh; — with u, krudh, kṣudh, guh, duṣ, dyut, druh, puṣ, budh, bhuj, muc, mruc, yuj, ruc, rud, rudh, muh, ruh, çuc; — with ṛ, ṛdh, kṛt, gṛdh, gṛh, tṛp, tṛṣ, tṛh, dṛp, dṛç, dhṛṣ, nṛt, mṛdh, mṛṣ, vṛt, vṛdh, vṛṣ, sṛp, hṛṣ. A small number end in vowels: thus, ṛ, kṛ, sṛ (which have the guṇa-strengthening throughout), hi (? ahyat once in AV.), and several in ā, apparent transfers from the root-class by the weakening of their ā to a: thus, khyā, hvā, vyā, çvā, and dā and dhā; and āsthat, regarded by the grammarians as aorist to √as throw, is doubtless a like formation from √sthā. A few have a penultimate nasal in the present and elsewhere, which in this aorist is lost: thus, bhraṅç, taṅs, dhvaṅs, sraṅs, krand, randh. Of less classifiable character are aç, kram, gam, ghas, tam, çam, çram, tan, san, sad, āp, das, yas, çak, dagh. The roots pat, naç, vac form the tense-stems papta, neça, voca, of which the first is palpably and the other two are probably the result of reduplication; but the language has lost the sense of their being such, and makes other reduplicated aorists from the same roots (see below, 854).
a. Many of these aorists are simply transfers of the root-aorist to an a-inflection. Conspicuous examples are akarat etc. and agamat etc. (in the earliest period only akar and agan).
848. The inflection of this aorist is in general so regular that it will be sufficient to give only examples of its Vedic forms. We may take as model avidam, from √vid find, of which the various persons and modes are more frequent and in fuller variety than those of any other verb. Only the forms actually quotable are instanced; those of which the examples found are from other verbs than vid are bracketed. Thus:
| active. | middle. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | p. | s. | d. | p. | |
| 1 | ávidam | ávidāva | ávidāma | ávide | [ávidāvahi] | ávidāmahi |
| 2 | ávidas | [ávidata] | [ávidathās] | |||
| 3 | ávidat | ávidan | [avidata] | [avidetām] | ávidanta | |
a. The middle forms are rare in the earlier language, as in the later: we have áhve etc., ákhye etc., ávide (?) and avidanta, avocathās and avocāvahi (and avidāmahe GB. and asicāmahe KB. are doubtless to be amended to -mahi).
