A Study of the Un-Paninian Verb-forms in the Critical Edition of the Adiparvan of the Mahabharata

In this substantial linguistic study, Harendra Chandra Sil examines hundreds of non‑Pāṇinian verb forms in the Critical Edition of the Ādiparvan of the Mahābhārata. The Ādiparvan, the epic’s opening book, is linguistically conservative and preserves forms that deviate from Pāṇini’s standardised Sanskrit. Sil focuses on the augmentless imperfect—a preterite form that omits the augment ‘a’—and categorises the examples found. He distinguishes between augmentless imperfects without change of voice, with change of voice, with change of conjugation, and with change of both conjugation and voice. Numerous examples are cited, and the author analyses their metre and context. He then surveys augmentless aorists, passive forms with active endings, and other anomalous constructions. The paper argues that many of these “irregular” forms result from metrical considerations in verses or from the influence of Prakrit and older dialects. Sil notes that the critical editors often emend these forms to fit Pāṇinian norms, but he cautions that doing so erases linguistic evidence for archaic usage. Future and conditional verb forms are also discussed; the author shows that the confusion between active and middle endings in some futures may reflect mixed paradigms rather than scribal errors. The article concludes that the Ādiparvan preserves strata of language predating classical Sanskrit and that studying such forms can illuminate the historical development of Sanskrit grammar. Sil’s systematic classification of the verb forms and his concordance of examples provide a valuable reference for philologists. He calls for more studies of non‑Pāṇinian usages in other parts of the epic and in Vedic literature to trace the evolution of verbal morphology.

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