A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v3.c17.16

v3.c17.16

Inasmuch also as the Sanskrit grammarians class the active and neuter phases together, we must find out which of these two phases any given verb employs, for the terminations of the tenses and persons are different. Some verbs employ both, but the majority are conjugated only in one of the two, and as there is no rule as to which of the two is to be used, the dictionary is our only guide. The active, or Parasmaipada, as it is called, stands to the neuter, or Âtmanepada, in the same relation as the active in Greek does to the middle voice, and the resemblance is the greater, in that the Âtmanepada, like the middle voice in Greek, uses the terminations of the passive.