MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

dhiya-dhiya^havyavad217-218] PRECATIVE, CONDITIONAL'367Precative.217. This form, which occurs in the RV. and AV. inprincipal clauses only, and never interrogatively, expressesa prayer or wish addressed to the gods almost exclusively, asis to be expected from the nature of those texts ; e. g. yo nodv6sty adharah sas padista mai/ he who hates us fall to theground (iii. 53'-').When a negative is used it is na e.; g.bhago me agne sakhy6 na mrdhyah. mai/ my good fortune ,Agni, not relax in {thy) friendship (iii. 54^').In B. the precative is almost restricted to verse or prose formulasquoted and to paraphrases of such formulas e. ; g. bhuyasinam uttaramsdmam kriyasam iti gdvam ld,ksma kuryat tcould that I may do(this) to more next year : so saying he should make the mark of the coivs (MS.).satd.m hima iti satam varsani jivyasam ity evdi^etdd aha by the expression' a hundred winters ' he says this 'voidd : that I may live a hundred years '(SB.). It is, however, sometimes found in genuine prose narrativealso ; e. g. sa ha vak prajapatim uvaea :evd^ah&rntubhyam bhiiyasam Vac said to Prajdpati: I irould like not to be a conductorof sacrifice for thee (SB.); td.m :asapad tva vadhyasuhhim (Agni) cursed (saying) / loish : tliey may kill thee n-ith repeateddeliberation (TS.).Conditional.218. In V. the conditional occurs only once (RV. ii. 30^) ina somewhat obscure passage, though the form abharisyatused after a past tense appears to mean ivould take away(in place of the future which would have been used aftera present tense).In B. the conditional is once found in a simple interrogative sentence: tata evd^asya bhayam viyaya : kd,smad dhy d,bhesyat thereuponhis fear departed: for of what should he have been afraid"? (SB.).Otherwise it occurs only in compound sentences:1. usually in both protasis and apodosis of conditional sentences,expressing what might have happened in the past, but did not happenbecause the condition was not fulfilled. The conditional clause isgenerally introduced by yad, rareh' by yddi (216) e.; g. sd, y£d dha^d.pimukhad ^drosyan, na ha^^evd. prayascittir abhavisyat if it(Soma) hadalso flowed out of his mouth, there would not have been apenance (SB.); y£d evdmn£^£vaksyo murdha te vy apatisyat if you had not spoken thus, yourhead irould have split asunder (SB.); padau te 'mlasyatam y£di ha nd^_^dgamisyah your feet would have withered, if you had not come (SB.).