22 STRUCTURE OF VERBAL SUM-.
its place supplied by H, employed in a construction where we should expect the infinitive. Thus Bhag. §04, ^frfR^lTf^i. ^TTf^J, tfTf^t- fa^5ITf%*i (Weber, Bhag. p. 274): "I wish to wander, to take the tonsure, to practise austerities, to learn," as though from Sanskrit forms TTsTTf^rt, JHUrfarT, WTfarT. fi j^l if M ci , the three last being causals formed with dp, as is frequently the ease with causals in Prakrit, though of course these forms are not found in Sanskrit. In that language the formation of causals by means of x^ is restricted to a few stems. More will be said on this subject in a subsequent chapter, but it is necessary here to note an early instance of this pro which takes a much wider development in later times, the infinitive in Gujarati and Oriya and several participial con- structions and verbal nouns being derived from it.
- . 7. The scenic Prakrits represent a further step in develop-
ment. Despite the admittedly artificial character of these dialects, they probably retain forms which were at one time in general use, although that time may not have been tin- epoch when the dramas were written, and without referring to them, the structure of the modern verb could not be clearly under- stood. It is expedient to avoid dix-ussing tin's question, l< -' attention should be drawn away from the real subject of this work, namely, the modern languages. All this part of the present chapter is merely introductory and is only inserted in order to pave the way for a more intelligent appreciation of the origin and growth of Hindi and its fellows.
In the Mahai&shtri or principal poetical dialect all conjuga- tions are reduced to the type of the first or Phu class, and the same holds good for the Qauraseni or chief prose dialect. Only here and there do we find faint traces of the peculiarities of other conjugations. Of the nix phases only three remain, active, passive, and causal. The passive differs from the active only in the form of the root, the characteristic *l of the
