Past (Aorist) tense - Verb Conjugation - Part 3

The term aorist derives from the grammar of ancient Greek. In Pali, it can be regarded as a simple past tense.

Note however, the use of the aorist tense in Pali covers both the simple past, the present perfect and occasionally also the imperfect aspect.

For example, agami can mean:

 he/she went" (simple past),
"he/she has gone" (present perfect),
and occasionally (imperfect) "he/she was going.

It should also be noted that the past participle is often used for the past tense.
The aorist verb is often used with the prohibitive negation mā:

mā agamāsi =  do not go.
mā atthāsi, = do not stand.
mā bhuñji, = do not eat.

Checkout this video tutorial on Tense and aspect in Pali.

Tense vs Aspect & Participles in Pali

Following on from the previous tutorial on tenses of the English Language, this tutorial looks at Tense & Aspect in the Pali language. You will see the difference between inflection and auxiliary verb...

Formation of the Aorist

The formation of Aorist verb in Pali can be confusing as it has its origins in Sanskrit imperfect and aorist tenses. Although these separate forms have mostly merged into a single past tense in Pali (sometime called the preterite or just aorist) there remains at least three paradigms. The Pali grammar guides classify the different derivations based on their Sanskrit origins, and have used a multitude of confusing terms including:

root, simple, radical or strong aorist, thematic , asigmatic  or -a- aorist
the sigmatic, -s- aorist, -is- aorist, the reduplicated aorist, perfect, imperfect...

Since this blog is mainly concerned with translation, and therefore identification, I will focus on this.

The aorist is supposedly formed on the verb root, but in practice, it is formed indifferently either on the root or the present stem. There is also a prefix a- known as the augment which is supposed to be added to the front of aorist verbs - though it is frequently left off.

The derivation of the aorist base is usually divided into three or four categories:

1. the root or radical Aorist is rare and is formed directly on a few verb roots - mainly ending -ā. The root-aorist always takes the augment,
   • a sub-division of the root-Aorist, is what is termed the a-Aorist, where the infix -a- is appended to the root.
2. the 'stem' or i-Aorist is formed on the present stem with addition of -i-. This infix can also be applied directly to a verb root after the root vowel has been strengthened.
3. finally there is the sigmatic or s-Aorist where -s(i)- is added to the strengthened root or to the present stem (mainly 7th conjugation -e stems and derivative verbal bases like the causative ending -e).

Prefixing the verbal base with the augment a- is somewhat optional. As a guide:

• the root-aorist always takes the augment,
• the a-Aorist, s-Aorist & i-aorist which are formed on the root, generally take the augment;
• while the those formed on the present stem generally do not.

To these aorist bases what are sometimes referred to as the secondary personal endings are added. These assimilate (combine) with the above infixes, and when collapsed in this way, they can be reduced to two paradigm tables...

Type 1: the root & a-Aorist

These endings are rarely found except in poetry. Where they are found they are mainly in compound words. It is formed by the addition of the following endings to roots only.

Type 1: root & a-Aorist

	Active			Reflexive
	Singular	Plural		Singular	Plural
3rd pers	-ā, -a	-ū, -u -uṁ, -ṁsu		-attha -atthu	-atthuṁ -aruṁ
2nd pers	-ā, -a -asi, -o	-attha -atha		-ase	-avhaṁ
1st pers	-ā, -a -aṁ	-āma, -(a)mhā -(a)mha		-im	-amhase -amase

The roots may undergo modification, sometimes making them hard to distinguish. But we can derive the (partial) paradigms as follows:

	Active		Reflexive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	√ga(m) (goes)
3rd pers	agā	agu aguṃ agū	agattha agatthu	agatthuṃ
2nd pers	aga ago	agattha	agase	agavhaṃ
1st pers	aga agaṃ	agamha agamhā	agiṃ	agamhase

And likewise, akā, ahu, aṭṭhā.

	Active		Reflexive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	√gam (goes)
3rd pers	agamā	agamu agamuṃ agamū	agamattha agamatthu	agamatthuṃ
2nd pers	agama agamo	agamattha	agamase	agamavhaṃ
1st pers	agama agamaṃ	agamamha agamamhā	agamiṃ	agamamhase

Type 2: the -i- & -(s)i- Aorist

This type is formed on the present stem or the strengthened root simply by the addition of the -(s)i-

Type 2: the -i- & -(s)i- Aorist

	Active			Reflexive
	Singular	Plural		Singular	Plural
3rd pers	-i -ī	-iṃsu -uṃ		-ā -ittha	-ū
2nd pers	-i -o	-ittha		-ise -ittho	-ivhaṃ
1st pers	-iṃ	-imha -imhā		-aṃ -a -itthaṃ	-imhe

While the third person is extremely common, the second and first persons plural are not often found in the Pali texts.  These endings are applied usually directly to a root, but sometimes also to the present stem. Verb bases ending in short vowels generally take the weak -i- aorist endings above:

	Active		Reflexive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	gaccha (goes)
3rd pers	gacchi gacchī	gacchiṃsu gacchuṃ	gacchā gacchittha	gacchū
2st pers	gacchi gaccho	gacchittha	gacchise gacchittho	gacchivhaṃ
1st pers	gacchiṃ	gacchimha gacchimhā	gacchaṃ gaccha gacchitthaṃ	gacchimhe
	√gam (goes)
3rd pers	agami agamī	agamiṃsu agamuṃ	agamā agamittha	agamū
2st pers	agami agamo	agamittha	agamise agamittho	agamivhaṃ
1st pers	agamiṃ	agamimha agamimhā	agamaṃ agama agamitthaṃ	agamimhe

Verb bases ending in long vowels may take the infix -(s)i- , as well as the pres. stems of all verbs of 7th conjugation (i.e. those stems ending in –e ), likewise causatives, and some other bases ending in vowels.

	Active		Reflexive
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	√sṭhā (stands)
3rd pers	aṭṭhāsi	aṭṭhaṃsu	aṭṭhāsatha aṭṭhāsittha
2st pers	aṭṭhāsi	aṭṭhattha	aṭṭhāsittho
1st pers	aṭṭhāsiṃ	aṭṭhamhā	aṭṭhāsitthaṃ
	dese (teaches)
3rd pers	desesi	desesuṃ
2st pers	desesi	desittha desettha
1st pers	desesiṃ	desimha desimhā
	kāre (causes to do)
3rd pers	kāresi	kāresuṃ
2st pers	kāresi	kārittha kārettha
1st pers	kāresiṃ	kārimha kārimhā

The aorist endings often over-lap with eachother and other conjugations. Note, the possible confusion between desesi (present indic., 2nd pers) meaning ‘you teach’ and desesi (aorist, 2nd/3rd pers) meaning ‘you taught’ or ‘s/he taught’.

It's also worth noting the possible confusion of the aorist endings with agent nouns ending '-in' which decline in the nominative to -ī/i.

There's now a video tutorial covering the Aorist inflections:

4 Aorist Verb inflections (Pali past tense) :Learn Pali Language

In this tutorial we look at the so called past tense of Pali - the aorist inflection. We begin by explaining often confusing terminology, such as: sigmatic/non-sigmatic, thematic/athematic etc. And c...

The Perfect

Though the Sanskrit imperfect ending have been subsumed into the aorist, the perfect tense endings still exists for certain ancient forms but only in 3rd person and I think only for the verb √ah. So these are included here for completeness. Note many grammar guides list full tables for the perfect tense.

Perfect Active endings

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	-a	-u

Leading to āha  & āhu

Unlike English, the perfect tense in Pali tends to be used to express the indefinite time of hearsay or something hard to believe i.e. ‘it was said that…’

Final Remarks

As this has been quite a complex post, I've attempted to simplify the aorist conjugation as much as possible below:

	Type 1		Type 2
	Root aorist	A-aorist	S-aorist	IS-aorist
Singlr:
3rd pers	-ā	-ā, -a	-si	-i, - ī
2nd pers	-o, -ā	-o, -a, -ā, -asi	-si	-i
1st pers	-ṃ	-aṃ, -a, -ā	-sim	-iṃ, -isaṃ, -issa
Plural:
3rd pers	-uṃ, -u, - ū	-uṃ, -ṃsu, -u, -ū	-suṃ, -(si)ṃsu,  -sisuṃ	-iṃsu, -isuṃ, -uṃ
2nd pers	-ttha	-atha,-attha	-sittha, -ttha	-ittha
1st pers	-mhā, -mha	-āma, -amhā,  -amha	-simha, -simhā,  -mha	-imha, -imhā

And taking √gam (root) / gaccha (stem); to go paradigm:

	Type 1		Type 2
	Root aorist	A-aorist	S-aorist	IS-aorist
Singlr:
3rd pers	agā	agamā	agamāsi	gacchi, agami
2nd pers	agā	agamā	agamāsi	gacchi, agami
1st pers	agaṃ	agamaṃ	agamāsiṃ	gacchiṃ, agamiṃ
Plural:
3rd pers	aguṃ	agamuṃ	agamaṃsu	gacchiṃsu, agamisuṃ
2nd pers	aguttha	agama(t)tha	agamattha	gacchittha, agamittha
1st pers	agumha	agamāma/agamamha	agamamha	gacchimha, agamimha

This concludes our look at the past tense in Pali. Next we look at what are called Secondary verb derivations...