A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.s3.13

c7.s3.13

It was inevitable that so distinguished models as the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa* should deeply affect later poets, and Patañjali, in citing an epic fragment containing the irregular term *priyākhya* in lieu of *priyākhyāya*, expressly asserts that poets commit such irregularities (*chandovat kavayaḥ kurvanti*). We find, therefore, occasional errors such as the confusion of *anti* and *atī*, of *tvā* and *ya*, of active and middle, as well as regular disregard of the specific sense of the past tenses as laid down by the grammarians but ignored in the epic. As in the epic, the perfect and imperfect freely interchange as tenses of simple narration without nuance of any kind. Even Kālidāsa permits himself *sarati* and *āsa* for *babhūva*, and Çrīharṣa with the *Rāmāyaṇa* uses *kavāṭa* for the *kapāṭa* of Pāṇini. Lesser poets, especially the poetasters who turned out inscriptions, are naturally greater sinners by far against grammatical rules, especially when they can plead metrical difficulties as excuse.