Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c11.82

c11.82

‘By counting (again and again) [the number of] days which were mentioned to me by my beloved when he set out on his travels [the skin of] my fingers has worn away by the nail.’ Here दइएं, पवसन्तेण and नहेण are instances of the instrumental. The first two expressive of the agent in the passive construction and the third of the simple instrument; so that the ण or ण of the instrumental must have descended to the vernaculars. Again Mr. Beames says that the old H. poets do not use the instr. in ने; but the oldest M. poet Jñânes'vara does use it in some cases. His agent instrumental is very often that which ends in ई, but instances of the use of नि, which is another form of ने, also occur.