Shringaraprakasha 5.p1.8

5.p1.8

It is sixfold—owing to the division of future, past, and present failure of action into pure and mixed. There, having understood a purely future failure of action by means of some indicative sign, one uses [the conditional]. For example: "Would it have fallen even if struck by a thunderbolt? How indeed could your honor have officiated for an outcaste? If he had gone to the south, the cart would not have overturned." And as in: "Had you walked on the path indicated by the virtuous, those glories of yours would not have ceased to walk at your feet." Likewise, even the mixed [type], as in: "Sītā would indeed have been given to Rāma, the moon of the house of Dāśarathi, endowed with holy splendor and worthy [of her], if the noble [Janaka] had not made the non-retractable condition of stringing the bow of Tryambaka." [Another] uses [it] having understood by some sign a purely past failure of action. For example: "I do not believe that your honor could have officiated for an outcaste"; "I cannot imagine that you, sir, would have eaten there." And as in: "Let that reproach not fall upon you, that this deer would have acted against you with its strength, had not the lord of the army swiftly checked it with a sharp feathered arrow." Likewise, even the mixed [type]: "If he had not united this pair possessing beauty envied by one another, the effort of the Lord of Creatures in creating form in this couple would have been in vain." Having understood even a present failure of action purely through some means of knowledge, one uses [it]. For example: "Would he have done [it]? Would he also have done [it]?" And as in: "How could the serpent have supported the earth with hoods soft as lotus-stalks, if you were not upholding it from the base of the netherworld?" Likewise, the mixed [type], as in: "The earth would have sunk into the water, its bonding of the lord of mountains slipped away, if you, resplendent like Nārāyaṇa, were not sustaining it." Thus it is said. The indefinite is that in which the distinctions of past, future, and so forth have disappeared. It is sixfold: the domain of the potential (liṅ), the domain of the imperative (loṭ), the domain of the present (laṭ), the domain of the future (lṛṭ), the domain of [gerundive suffixes such as] tavya, etc., and the domain of [infinitive and absolutive suffixes such as] tumun, etc.