TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

development of the precative); the aor. as one of the past tenses develops, in
Saṃhitā Prose, a periphrastical aor. (see K.Hoffmann, Aufs. 469, ann. 6),
which then disappears in the Brāhmaṇas.
At this moment, actual restructuring of the use of the past tenses sets in (see
above). A distinction is made between the value of the augmented forms
(impf., aor., conditional) in "pluperfect meaning" (vorzeitig) and the
unaugmented forms (perf., pres., future, subj., opt., imp.). 136
The effects of this development are to be seen clearly by the time of early
Middle Indian. Subsequently, the perf. is found only in a few remnant forms
of Pāli; it has almost disappeared in Middle Indian. The impf. is extinct,
except for a few remnants in Pāli which have been classified with the
aorists. 137 In a situation where both the perfect and impf. tenses disappear, it
is not surprising that the aor. 138 has survived in Middle Indian, i.e., in Pāli,
(more rarely in A.-Mg. and in a few cases in J.-Māh.) 139
In late Vedic, the aorist had retained its function, i.e., relating something
that has happened immediately before the present. Apparently it also relates
(the effect of) a recent happening leading u p to the present; see, for example,
ŚB 1.4.1.8-19: aśakata or ŚB 1.4.10-18, ŚBK 2.3.4.8-15: the conversation
between Videgha and Gotama, which recapitulates their journey in the aorist.
Is this an indication that, in the East, personal experiences, whethe2 recent or
not, could be told in the aorist? (Cf. also Weller, Śunaḥśepa, Ber.d. Sachs.
Akad., Bd. 102.3, p. 72). Contrast this with the opposite situation in some
Vedic texts and in Pāli (pers. experience in impf., past events in aor.),
according to Oldenberg, Prosa, p.25. Perhaps this, too, was a regional
feature at the time of the late Brāhmaṇas. This, however, can only be decided
after careful study of similar occurrence.
§5.3 The use of narrative perfect in traditional formulas
136
Note that there is no functional distinction between augmented and unaugmented forms
in Pāli, but that this is a remnant of older forms only, regulated acc. to the length of the
form and its origin in one of the aor. types; but cf.now C. Caillat, in Fs. U. Schneider, see
above ann. 132.
137
āsīt > āsī, see O.v. Hinüber, Überblick §479; cf. also Oldenberg, Prosa, p. 25 ann. 2, who
compares a similar distribution for Pāli: avoca (relating an event of the past) / avaca
(personal remembrance).
138
Which even in late Vedic is mainly used in a preterite function (i.e., to tell recent events),
and thus separate from impf/perf.
139
O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, p.192 § 477-488, esp. § 478.
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