A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.159

v2.c12.159

In Sanskrit the formations of this class are regularly barytone, and accentuate the root. In M. and S. they are also barytone, but in H. and P. they take the long vowel. It does not appear, however, that this is a regular exception. In old Hindi the infinitive of this class—I say "of this class" because there is another infinitive in ओ—ends always in the short vowel. For example, Chand (A.D. 1200) uses the phrases: जय हरन की " (in order) to seize the victory," बंधन बिचारि "having plotted to bind," जंग जुरन जालिम जुझार "a warrior terrible in the tug of war." In the modern idiom we should have हरने को, बांधना, and जोडने में respectively. This consonantally terminated form, or rather (as it is pronounced in poetry) this form ending in short *a*, is used by the poets as far down as the middle of the seventeenth century. Gambhir Rai (*circa* 1650) has कोऊ न छूहन पावे "(that) no one might be able to touch." Tulsi Das (1600) employs this form regularly in his Ramayan, *e.g.* रखवारे तब बरजन लागे "the keepers then began to forbid (them)," Sundara Kánd. 60, 15. From Bhaktamâla (1630): मांगन कीं धायो "he ran to beg." I have only picked out an instance or two at random, as the practice is universal.