Uses of the Present and Imperfect.
776. The uses of the mode-forms of the present-system have been already briefly treated in the preceding chapter (572 ff.). The tense-uses of the two indicative tenses, present and imperfect, call here for only a word or two of explanation.
777. The present has, besides its strictly present use, the same subsidiary uses which belong in general to the tense: namely, the expression of habitual action, of future action, and of past action in lively narration.
a. Examples of future meaning are: imáṁ céd vā́ imé cinváte táta evá no ‘bhíbhavanti (ÇB.) verily if these build this up, then they will straightway get the better of us; agnir ātmabhavam prādād yatra vāñchati nāiṣadhaḥ (MBh.) Agni gave his own presence wherever the Nishadhan should desire; svāgataṁ te ‘stu kiṁ karomi tava (R.) welcome to thee; what shall I do for thee?
b. Examples of past meaning are: úttarā sū́r ádharaḥ putrá āsīd dā́nuḥ çaye sahávatsā ná dhenúḥ (RV.) the mother was over, the son under; there Dānu lies, like a cow with her calf; prahasanti ca tāṁ kecid abhyasūyanti cā ’pare akurvata dayāṁ kecit (MBh.) some ridicule her, some revile her, some pitied her; tato yasya vacanāt tatrā ’valambitās taṁ sarve tiraskurvanti (H.) thereupon they all fall to reproaching him by whose advice they had alighted there.
778. In connection with certain particles, the present has rather more definitely the value of a past tense. Thus:
a. With purā́ formerly: thus, saptarṣī́n u ha sma vāí purá rkṣā íty ā́cakṣate (ÇB.) the seven sages, namely, are of old called the bears; tanmātram api cen mahyaṁ na dadāti purā bhavān (MBh.) if you have never before given me even an atom.
b. With the asseverative particle sma: thus, çrámeṇa ha sma vāí tád devā́ jayanti yád eṣāṁ jáyyam ā́sá rṣayaç ca (ÇB.) in truth, both gods and sages were wont to win by penance what was to be won; āviṣṭaḥ kalinā dyūte jīyate sma nalas tadā (MBh.) then Nala, being possessed by Kali, was beaten in play.
c. No example of this last construction is found in either RV. or AV., or elsewhere in the metrical parts of the Veda. In the Brāhmaṇas, only habitual action is expressed by it. At all periods of the language, the use of sma with a verb as pure asseverative particle, with no effect on the tense-meaning, is very common; and the examples later are hardly to be distinguished from the present of lively narration — of which the whole construction is doubtless a form.
779. The imperfect has remained unchanged in value through the whole history of the language: it is the tense of narration; it expresses simple past time, without any other implication.
a. Compare what is said later (end of chap. X. and chap. XI.) as to the value of the older past tenses, the perfect and aorist.
