TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

ŚBK, p. 71 sqq., p.70 sqq., with this interesting observation on the functions of
tenses in ŚBK: original use in ŚB of the impf., found at the end of a tale told
in the perf., "in pluperfect meaning." However, this "still requires special
investigation." 131
In my opinion, this comes close to the use of the impf. in JB; a mythological,
hierarchical (or historical) past is intended. It is summed up in impf.: "this
or that had happened at that time...." However, even this assumption does
not explain a l l the usages of the impf. in JB. We have to reckon with the
retention of an older usage of a narrative imperfect in parts of the text. The
older formulation made at the time of the composition of the Śāṭyāyana Br.,
which preceded JB, has survived frequently, so that in some stories there is a
gradual "slip" towards the perfect, and a sudden reversion to the imperfect in
other parts of the same story; see, for example, the Cyavana legend of JB. 132
The later destiny of the various past tenses can be summed up briefly. 133
The development is connected with the emergence of the post-Vedic Epic and
"classical" Skt. (other than Pāṇini's North-Eastern bhāṣā). It is known that
Epic / Class. Skt. did not directly develop from (a particular) Vedic dialect,
but that various regional features were intermingled.
In this case, the Eastern feature (typical is ŚBM, AB 6-8), with an opposition
aorist : perfect, is fused with the Central/Western one (TB, AB 1-5) with a
retention of the older opposition aorist : imperfect : perfect, and the Southern
one (JB) with a new opposition aor. : perf. 134
Probably this development in later Vedic and in Epic/Class. Skt. is only the
effect of a complete restructuring of the tense system which took place at the
same time in popular speech, i.e., Prākṛt. 135 The beginnings of this
restructuring are visible in the YV Saṃhitās (loss of the modi of the aor. and
131 See Whitney, TAPA 23 p.25-26, Minard I §168 b note 471a.
132 Cf. author in: Fs. U. Schneider, cf. also Whitney, TAPA 23, p. 22 with examples of such
"slips" in ŚB 12.9.3.7 sqq.; - cf. also the conditional in Pāli; and some missing augments in
AB, KB, see Keith, RV Br. p. 74; on the other hand, some unwarranted augments are
inserted in other texts, cf. C. Caillat, Fs. Schneider, cf. ann. 290; cf. further, van Daalen,
Valmīki's Sanskrit, p. 83 sq.; S.K. Bharadwaj, Ling. Stud. in the DhS, Rohtak 1982, p. 122;
Satyavrat, The Rāmāyaṇa, a linguistic study, Delhi 1964, p. 223 sq.; E.D. Kulkarni, ABORI
24, p. 83-97.
133 Cf. the notes in my article in the Festschr. U. Schneider.
134 JB, however, has many instances of the impf. for ancient legends or for the summing up
of an ancient happening/distant personal remembrance.
135 For this purpose, the grammar of the so-called Yajñagāthās should be scrutinised. How
far do they differ from the later Epic and from Pāṇini?
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