John Smith, Re: iyaat (Buddhist pseudo-Sanskrit)

> > Dear group, In recent days I have a couple of
> times
> > found iyaat and such forms, which I would take to
> be
> > optative in form, used with what seems to have to
> be a
> > simple preterite meaning, "he went", and so on.
> Is
> > this a recognized possibility in the Mahabharata's
> > Sanskrit?
>
> This is an old favourite -- I first bumped into it
> at 2.67.5, 2.67.15,
> where the editor Edgerton flags it and refers to a
> JAOS article by
> himself that (if I remember correctly) points to
> comparable usages in
> Buddhist Sanskrit. More recently, Oberlies has a
> two-page list of
> optatives being used with preterite sense (and a
> long footnote full of
> references); whet he doesn't say, but stands out on
> the printed page,
> is that iyAt outweighs all other forms many times
> over. Most of the
> other examples are one-offs, and I dare say some
> could be interpreted
> in other ways (haven't checked). Clearly iyAt has in
> some way got
> "crossed" with the normat imperfect form ayAt (from
> yA-), though why
> this should have happened I have no idea.
>
> John Smith