Collected Articles Of LA Schwarzschild On Indo Aryan 1953 1979

Author(s): Royce Wiles
Publisher: Australian National University

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A STUDY OF SOME FEATURES OF THE IMPERATIVE IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN
By L. A. SCHWARZSCHILD
THE IMPERATIVE OCCUPIES A unique position in the conjugation system. In its real function it implies the presence of a speaker issuing a command to one or more listeners, or making an order referring to a third person or persons. This means that the conjugation tends to be defective. Because of its immediate association with the speaker the imperative is generally linked with the present tense, but through its meaning it is also associated with the future tense. The uncertainty of whether a command will be carried out links the imperative with the subjunctive, while the idea of volition brings it close to the optative. These special features and varying associations make the history of the imperative extremely complex in Middle Indo-Aryan as in other languages. An attempt is made here to study two aspects of this history: the use of the subject pronoun with the imperative, and the distribution of the forms of the second person singular of the imperative. Other features of the imperative, in particular its relation to the passive, will be discussed later.
One of the interesting features of the use of the imperative in Middle Indo-Aryan is the frequent occurrence of the pronominal subject. As has often been pointed out in works on syntax,' this usage was not unheard of in the classical languages including Sanskrit, but in all cases it seems to have been confined to popular speech and does not generally figure in the more stylized texts in these languages: e.g. Latin narra tu mihi (Cic.) "tell thou me", Sanskrit ma tvam vairagyam gaccha (Kathasaritsagara) "do not thou grow weary of life". This type of construction is very frequent indeed in Prakrit, particularly in Ardhamāgadhi and in Jain Mähäräştri, as can be illustrated by numerous examples from the Svetambara Jain canon, both from the older and the more recent sections: Se nam paro navagao nāvāgayam vadejjā: āusamto samaṇā, eyam ta tumam chattagam va cammacheyaṇagam va ginhahi, eyani tumam virüvaruvani satthajayani dhärehi, eyam va tumam daragam vā pajjehi, tusiņio uvehejjā. "Another passenger may say to him as he is sitting in the boat: "Venerable monk, take thou this parasol or this rug, hold thou these various weapons, give thou this child a drink,' but he should look on silently." (Ayarañgasutta, 11.3.2.)
Especially frequent in the canon is the phrase: gacchaha nam tubbhe devāṇuppiya, "go ye, beloved of the gods," which generally introduces instructions to the household servants (e.g. Nayadhammakahão 1.16). Similar examples are found in Jain Sauraseni, though perhaps not quite as abundantly, e.g. jinasu tumam, "conquer thou" (Bhagavati Aradhana, v. 1447). In the other literary Prakrit dialects this usage is also found, though less generally, as in Sauraseni: tam tuman labhasu, "take thou this" (Karpuramanjari, Act I), and there are also instances in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, e.g. na tuvam manasikara, "do not concern yourself with it."*
H. Hirt, Indogermanische Grammatik, Part VI: Syntax (Heidelberg, 1934), p. 154.
Quoted as an example of the use of the imperative with the prohibitive particle ma by J. S. Speyer, Vedische und Sanskrit-Syntax (Strassburg, 1896), p. 58.
* Quoted by F. Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar (New Haven, 1953), p. 203. This example is based on an emendation and a more definite case is given on p. 108: sa va mañjasiri precha sadhana, "do thou, O Sadhana, ask Manjuśri."
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A STUDY OF SOME FEATURES OF THE IMPERATIVE IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN
The pronoun may precede the verb, as in the long example from the Aydrangasutta quoted above, or it may follow the verb as in some of the other examples and in fairly usual types of Ardhamägadhi phrases like: paccapinahi nam tuman Dovaim devim, "bring thou back Queen Draupadi" (Ndyadhammakahão XVI). There is nevertheless some uniformity in the position of the pronoun subject of the imperative in early Prakrit. It usually follows the first word of a clause, or is separated from the first word only by a particle, especially the emphatic particle pam. This rule may be seen to apply in all the examples quoted above. The regularity with which the pronoun subject of the imperative occupies this position is closely related to the unstylized usage of Sanskrit and of the classical languages. This second position in the sentence is generally unaccented, and it would seem in fact that the pronoun subject of the imperative was used to give personal emphasis to the command, but was not itself heavily accented. Particularly in the singular the imperative of the second person was distinctive in form, and in the plural it was identical only with the second person plural of the indicative in Prakrit, so there was no formal need for the pronoun to indicate the person of the subject: it was purely a matter of emphasis characteristic of popular style, and this emphasis became very frequent in Ardhamägadhi and Jain Mähäräştri.
In the meantime the popular language developed further and some of the changes are reflected in later and unstylized Prakrit texts. Here the use of the pronoun subject of the imperative is much rarer, and is on the whole confined to cases where there is a contrast between persons. This is particularly marked in popular Mähäräştri prose, e.g. in the Kuvalayamála1: deva, aham ceva vaccami, eittha tumam, "sir, I alone am going, stay thou" (157.5), or again in contrast to the speaker, senavalno, vaccaha, niyattaha tubbhe, "generals, go, return ye" (146.7). The construction with the pronoun subject of the imperative is practically missing from a popular text like the Vasudevahindi, but it does occur in a later semi-stylized Mähäräştri work, the Lilävaikahd: má tamma tumam, ma jharasu, má vimuñica attanam, "do not falter, do not faint, do not abandon thyself" (v. 573). It is noticeable that here the pronoun subject tumam no longer occupies the second position in the clause. It is in fact characteristic of these later popular texts that the pronoun subject, when used, appears almost invariably at the beginning or the end of the sentence: e.g. in the Cauppannamahāpurisacariyam, where it is used to mark contrast, citthasu tumam, java aham chiviinam uyagam agacchami, "you stay, while I wash and come back again" (p. 160), gavesatssami ham ti, tuman puna... citthasu, "I will go and search, you stay" (p. 161), and also tumam tam eva pucchahi, "you indeed ask her" (p. 157), where the pronoun subject is clearly in the initial position. The construction in which the pronoun subject of the imperative occupied the second position had earlier been a mark of colloquial speech, but became so general in Jaina Prakrit that it was ultimately felt to be both stylized and meaningless and ceased to be a popular feature. The use of the pronoun subject later gradually came back into the language in cases where a contrast between persons was to be emphasized, but it tended to remain outside the sentence, either at the beginning or at
the end.
Quotations from Prakrit and Apabhramda texts are taken from the standard critical editions, notably those in the Singh Jain Series. The Kuvalayamälä, edited by A. N. Upadhye (Bombay, 1959), forms vol. no. 45 of this series.
Cauppannamahapurisacarlyam, ed. A. M. Bhojak, Prakrit Text Society Series no. 3 (Benares, 1961).
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