Root: dah; pres. dahati; aor. dhakùa-; no. of occurrences: 4
This form appears 3 times, together with the further appearance of a form dakùi. Examples are: 1.76.3ab prá sú víśvān rakùáso dhákùy agne, bhávā yajñµnām abhiśastipµvā, ‘Burn up all the Rakùasas, O Agni, become the defender of the sacrifices from curses’, 4.4.4 úd agne tiùñha práty µ tanuùva, ny àmítrāÁ oùatāt tigmahete / yó no árātiü samidhāna cakré, nīcµ táü dhakùy atasáü ná śúùkam, ‘O Agni, stand up, spread yourself wide, burn our enemies to the ground, sharp-projectile-wielder, he who committed a hostile act against us, O Ignited one, burn him to the ground like dry bushes.’ The parallel between (b) and (d) shows again that this form was considered equivalent to an imperative. Strikingly similar is 6.18.10ab agnír ná śúùkaü vánam indra het·, rákùo ní dhakùy aśánir ná bhīmµ, ‘Like fire (or Agni) burns dry wood, Indra, with your weapon, burn to the ground the Rakùas like a terrifying thunderbolt.’
Finally, in 2.1.10c appears the form dakùi: tváü ví bhāsy ánu dakùi dāváne, ‘you shine out, ... to give’. Geldner thinks this is the -si form from dakù, translating ‘sei bereit(?) zu schenken’. This interpretation is made difficult both by the fact that there is no s-aorist attested from this verb, and by the fact that there is no attested combination of anu-dakù. Although the combination anu-dah does exist, the semantics make this interpretation difficult. Grassmann suggests the form may be a vocative. For the present, at least, it seems this form must remain unclear.
nakùi ‘come, reach’
Root: naś; pres. aśnoti; aor. ānañ (root aorist) ; no. of occurrences: 1
This form appears once, at 5.24.2b áchā nakùi dyumáttamaü rayíü dāþ ‘Come here, give us the most shining property’.
All the other attested aorist forms of this verb in the Rigveda are root aorists. However, there exists for this verb a derivative present stem nakùa-. Gotō (1987: 191-192), citing the Young Avestan form nASemna (~ nakùa-māna-), states that this form originated in the Proto-Indo-Iranian period, and quotes Narten (1964: 160): “Ob es sich hier um eine alte Wurzelerweiterung handelt oder ob das sa-Präs. vielleicht Weiterentwicklung eines ursprünglichen sa-Konj. darstellt, läßt sich aus
dem vedischen Material nicht mehr ersehen.” Despite this, the presence of such ‘sigmatic’ forms as these, including the attested forms nakùat and nakùati, would provide an ideal environment for the creation of an imperative form in -si, on the basis of such pairs as yakùat/yakùi.81
Jasanoff (1986), meanwhile, assigns an even earlier, PIE, date to this form, comparing it directly to the Old Irish tair, which he derives from *to-ar-inksi.
néùi ‘lead’
Root: nī; pres. nayati; aor. anaiùña, neùat ; no. of occurrences: 10
This verb is conjugated, both in the present and the aorist, in a very similar way to the verb ji, and like jéùi/jéùat from ji, shows the pair néùi/néùat. All aorist forms of this verb in the Rigveda are sigmatic, although in the Atharvaveda there is an -iù aorist form ánayīt. Furthermore, two athematic forms exist, nethá and ánītām, which have not been satisfactorily explained, although perhaps they should be classed together with the similarly difficult form jitam, from ji.
The form neùi appears 10 times,82 e.g.: 3.15.3c váso néùi ca párùi cµty áühaþ ‘Lead us, O good one, and pass us over troubles’, in which also note the presence of another -si imperative, párùi.
An imperative form neùa, similar to joùa and parùa, is attested at Atharvaveda 7.97.2.
párùi ‘pass, bring’
Root: p; pres. piparti; aor. parùat;83 no. of occurrences: 1684
This is one of the commoner examples of the -si imperative, which, in the light of the widely attested sigmatic aorist forms of the verb p, leaves little room for doubt 81See śru(ù) for a similar example.
82 1.31.18; 1.91.1; 1.129.5; 2.1.16; 2.2.13; 3.15.3; 5.42.4; 6.47.8; 6.61.14; 8.16.12.
83As well as the sigmatic aorist, which is the most commonly attested, this verb has -iù- aorist forms (pµriùat) and redupliced aorist forms (apīparan). This latter form is the only indicative (augmented) form attested for this verb. All the others are subjunctives, and the -si imperatives.
84
1.129.5; 1.174.9; 2.7.2; 2.33.3; 3.15.3; 5.3.11; 5.4.9; 6.4.8; 6.20.12; 6.48.10; 7.23.2;
8.67.11; 8.97.15; 8.103.7; 9.1.3; 9.70.10.as to its morphological affiliation. All of the other attested sigmatic forms of this verb are subjunctives, a fact which has provided ammunition to those wishing to derive the -si forms from the aorist subjunctive. The ubiquitous pairing of -si/-sat forms is well attested for this verb too; parùi/parùat.
Another imperative is also attested, parùā, at 1.97.8ab sá naþ síndhum iva nāváyā-, -áti parùā svastáye ‘Bring us over like with a ship over a river for wellbeing’. The semantics, plus the fact that this form appears to occur in a sá+impv. construction, leave little doubt that this is an imperative.85
The form parùi occurs once in a relative clause, for which see p. 59.
prµsi ‘fill’
Root: p®1 ; pres. põāti; aor. áprās (3rd sing. sigmatic) ; no. of occurrences: 2 This form is attested twice, 1.42.9 and 8.1.23, both times in the expression prāsy udáram ‘fill (our) stomach’. In the former example, the form is part of a remarkable string of imperatives, for which see p. 138.
In the light of the context in which it occurs, there can be little doubt either as to the root from which this form is derived, or that it is part of the sigmatic aorist system.