Perfect Participles

Introduction

The distant past tense is usually called the perfect tense. The word "perfect" comes from the Latin word perfectus, which means "finished" or "accomplished." The word "perfect" is thus used to show that an action has been completed.

The perfect tense is a common part of English, as you can see in the examples below. Here, the second example is a "perfect" verb:

• I do the work.

• I have done the work.

This notion of "perfect" verbs does not often exist in Sanskrit, but it occasionally appears:

• व्यासप्रसादात् श्रुतवान् एतद्गुह्यमहं परम्

  vyāsaprasādāt śrutavān etadguhyamahaṃ param

  By the grace of Vyasa I have heard this supreme secret.

• समवेता युयुत्सवः

  samavetā yuyutsavaḥ

  (they all) have assembled and want to fight

• नरके ऽनियतं वासो भवतीत्य् अनुशुश्रुम

  narake 'niyataṃ vāso bhavatīty anuśuśruma

  There is eternal dwelling in hell; thus we have heard.

In the last example, the distant past tense has this "perfect" sense. In this lesson, we will study the perfect participles, which are formed from verbs in the distant past tense. Such participles have this "perfect" sense quite strongly.

• तं तस्थिवांसं नगरोपकण्ठे

  taṃ tasthivāṃsaṃ nagaropakaṇṭhe

  Him who has stopped near the city

Notice, though, that we can rewrite this sentence using the gerund or the past parasmaipada/ātamnepada participle:

• तं स्थित्वा नगरोपकण्ठे

  taṃ sthitvā nagaropakaṇṭhe

  Him who has stopped near the city

• तं स्थितवन्तं नगरोपकण्ठे

  taṃ sthitavantaṃ nagaropakaṇṭhe

  Him who has stopped near the city

Usage

The perfect participle is used rarely. The participles for verbs like kṛ, as, and bhū can be used with abstract nouns, just like regular perfect verbs.

• दर्शयामास

  darśayāmāsa

  He displayed.

• दर्शयाम् आसिवान्

  darśayām āsivān

  He has been displaying

Forming the participle stem

Perfect participles are formed with the weak stem of the distant past tense. The parasmaipada form uses vas, and the ātmanepada form uses āna. vas uses the connecting i vowel if the stem is one syllable long.

• कृ → चकृ → चकृवस्

  kṛ → cakṛ → cakṛvas

  do → having done

• गम् → जग्म् → जग्मिवस्

  gam → jagm → jagmivas

  go → having done

• वच् → ऊच् → ऊचान

  vac → ūc → ūcāna

  speak → having spoken

• नी → निनी → निन्यान

  nī → ninī → ninyāna

  lead → having led

• श्रु → शुश्रु → शुश्रुवाण

  śru → śuśru → śuśruvāṇa

  hear → having heard

  Note that internal sandhi produces the form above instead of *śuśrvāna.

Feminine stems

Feminine suffixes are as follows:

Suffix

Feminine Version

-vas

uṣī

-ivas

uṣī

Feminine stems follow the pattern of nouns like nadī.

Inflection

The ātmanepada participles follow the pattern of the -a stems and use -ā for the feminine. The parasmaipada participle is a little different. As you might expect, it is a consonant noun with multiple stems. The stems differ slightly depending on whether the connecting i vowel is used.

Irregularities

In parasmaipada, roots ending in a long ṝ reduplicate only after the suffix is added.

• तॄ → तीर्वस् → तितीर्वस्

  tṝ → tīrvas → titīrvas

  cross → having crossed

• तॄ → ततॄ → ततिराण

  tṝ → tatṝ → tatirāṇa

  cross → having crossed