296 the verb of denominative. The close relation between the aorist and present systems is seen by the fact that certain types of aorist stem are identical in form with certain types of present stem. This is so with the root aorist (dkar, etc.) which is formed like the imperfect of the root class ( dhan , etc.), and the a-aorist [druhat, etc.) which resembles the imperfect of the sixth class ( dtudat , etc.). The aorist or imperfect character of these two types of formation is determined not by the form itself but by the existence or non-existence of a present from the same stem. In other cases there is evidence for the one time existence of presents from those forms of stem which in Sanskrit are used exclusively as aorists, Thus corresponding to the reduplicated aorist ajijanat, Avestan has a present zlzanznti "they give birth Even in the case of the s -aorist, which is most clearly marked off from the present system, the existence of presents like Av. ndisnvi ' I insult ' demonstrates that such formations were not always exclusively aoristie. The relation of the present-imperfect on the one hand, and the aorist on the other, can be discussed only in view of the meaning of the three tenses. In Sanskrit this is not at all com- plicated. The present indicates simply present time, and the imperfect past time in contradistinction to this, no more and no less : hdnti ‘ he slays dhan ‘ he slew etc. There exists no trace of an ' imperfect ’ sense in the Sanskrit tense of that name, and such a sense, if it is needed, is expressed by the present tense with the addition of the particle sma. The aorist in contra- distinction to the imperfect expresses a special kind of past time, inasmuch as it is used for describing an action which has just recently been completed : ud asau sUryo agdt 4 yonder sun has risen etc. This clear distinction of meaning between the aorist and present stem is found only in the case of the indicative, in these two kinds of preterite. There exist also various moods — in- junctive, subjunctive, imperative and optative — and also par- ticiples, active and middle, which may be formed alternatively from the present or aorist stems. But in all these latter types of formation no serious distinction of meaning can be found in the Vedic language between those formed from the present and those formed from the aorist stem, e.g. karat subj. ' he will do ' does not differ in any demonstrable sense Troir krndvat 1 id * from the present stem.
