The Indo-Iranian cakri-type.

• Author: Grestenberger, Laura
• Position: Essay

[section]1. The aim of this study is to give an account of a group of Vedic reduplicated nominal stems formed with the suffix -i- that are formally associated with the perfect stem of the corresponding verbal root and seem to have a participial function (the "cakri-type").

According to the standard view, the cakri-type typically makes agent nouns "mit meist adjektivischer Verwendung" and (sometimes) intensive semantics (AiG 11,2: 291ff.). Although these correspond morphologically to the weak stem of the perfect (Barschel 1986: 307), semantically they are much closer to an imperfective present stem. There are thirty-[one.sub.1] formations of this type in the Rigveda. The better-attested items are distributed evenly across all ten books (see Table 1 in the appendix). The Avestan evidence confirms that this was an Indo-Iranian type. The literature is somewhat confused on what kind of nominalization this type is: essentially agent nouns, which came to be used as adjectives (AiG 11,2: 291ff.), or deverbal adjectival formations (Leumann 1942: 22 n. 1, Barschel 1986: 305). Barschel (p. 307) points out the morphological affiliation of the type to the perfect stem, but fails to notice that it does not always show the semantics expected of a deverbal formation from the perfect stem. He furthermore acknowledges that the slight preference for initial accent that the type displays--twenty of thirty-one stems are accented on the reduplicated syllable--is unexpected under the assumption that the perfect stem was the derivational basis. Barschel (p. 306) proceeds to argue that oxytone accentuation was original to these stems, and that the tendency towards initial accent is part of a broader pattern of innovated accentuation among the Vedic i-stems (citing examples such as cakri-: acakri-: jaghni-; nijaghni-: sthuri-, asthuri, etc., in which the compound form may have preserved the older oxytone accentuation). Since there is no functional difference between the cakri-forms with initial accent and the suffix-accented forms, there is no reason not to follow Barschel's analysis with respect to the accentuation. However, I disagree with his conclusion that the entire type had the perfect stem as its derivational basis. In the following, I will show that the core forms of the type do not have the semantics expected of a perfect stem derivative, and that they behave syntactically like participles rather than real agent nouns, in that they assign accusative case to their direct objects and can be modified by adverbs. They differ from other participles, however, in that they are not integrated into the paradigm of a particular tense/aspect stem.

[section] (2.) A noticeable feature of the cakri-type is its ability to take accusative and dative objects if the corresponding verbal root is transitive, as well as adverbial modifiers. In its simplex attestations, cakri- 'making, doing' (kr 'do, make, act', 3p1. perf. cakrur) is mostly used pred-icatively and takes accusative objects:

RV 9.88.4ab: Indro na yo maHd karmani cakrir, hanta vrtranam asi soma purbhin't Like Indra, who accomplishes great deeds, you. Soma, are the slayer of enemies, smashing fortresses. There is a clear contrast between karmani cakrir "(repeatedly) doing deeds" and the immediately following hanta vrtranam "destroyer of enemies." The latter is a "real" agent noun with a suffix-accented -tar- and genitive rather than an accusative complement (but note that there is also a root-accented type that does take accusative objects; see Tichy 1995 on this suffix in general). (2) The same syntactic behavior is found in the instances where cakri- has incorporated a preverb or adverb-like modifier:

RV 6.24.5ab: anyad adya kdrvaram anyad u svo, 'sac ca san muhur acakrir indrah One deed today and another one tomorrow; (thus) Indra instantly turns that which is not into that which is. (3) This example shows both incorporation of the preverb a and accusative case assignment in a double accusative structure. (4) Similarly, jagmi- 'going' (gam 'go, come', 3p1. perf. jagmur) can optionally take an adverbial accusative (5) (Richtungsakkusativ or accusative of goal) specifying the destination of the verbal action:

RV 2.23.11a: ananudo vrsabho jagmir ahavam nistapta satrum pranasu sasahih/asi satya maya brahmanas pate An unyielding bull, approaching the fight, (6) burning down the enemy, victorious in the battles --you are the true avenger of offenses, Brahmakias Pati! jaghni- 'beating, slaying' (han 'beat, slay, kill', 3p1.perf. jaghnur) provides a clear instance of the modification of this type by an adverb:

RV 9.53.2: aya nijaghnir ojasa, rathasamge dhdne hitel stava abibhyusa hrda Mit diesem (Liede) will ich mit Kraft zuschlagend im Wagenkampf bei ausgesetztem Preise furchtlosen Herzens lobsingen. (Geldner, RV III: 38) Here, nijaghni- modified by the adverbial instrumental ojasa 'with strength', a clear indication that we are not dealing with a true agent noun, since these are never modified by adverbs, but with a participial form. Compare the use of ojasa with a finite verbal form of han in RV 1.80.2: yena vrtram nir adbhyo, jaghantha vajrinn ojasa. .. "through which you, o cudgel-carrier, have expelled Vrtra from the waters with might." jaghni- is furthermore attested with an accusative object in RV 9.61.20.

In RV 6.23.4 we find the use of dadi- 'giving' (da 'give, donate', 3p1. perf. dadtur; but note that in this case we also find a morphologically corresponding reduplicated present stem), babhri- 'carrying, bearing' (bhr 'carry, bear'), and papi--'drinking' (pet 'drink') with accusative objects:

RV 6.23.4: ganteyanti savana haribhyam, babhrir vajram papih somam dadir gah Coming to so many soma-pressings with his pair of flame-colored horses, carrying a cudgel, drinking soma, giving cows, ... For dadi- we also find three cases of adverbial modification, e.g.: RV 2.24.13cd: viludvesa anu vasa rnam adadih, sa ha vaji samithe brahmanas patih Steadfast in his hatred, (7) taking his dues according to his wish, (8) Brahmaanas Pati is the one who wins the prize in the contest. Here, anu vasa "according to (his) wish" is a subject-oriented adverbial phrase modifying adadi- (cf. oldenberg 1909: 209). A further indication of the participial status of this form is the incorporation of the preverb [ss]'to' from the underlying syntagma ci da 'take (for oneself)' and the accusative object.

The nine attestations of papuri- and its variant papri- reflect formations to three different Indo-Iranian roots: * parH 'fill' (

RV 6.50.13ab: uta syd devah savita bhdgo no, 'pam napad avatu paprih Auch der Gott Savitri, Bhaga, Apam ,naben Spendende, sllen uns ihre Gunt schenken. (Ge1dner, RV II: 153) In RV 4.23.3 papuri- furthermore takes a dative recipient in the phrase papurim jaritre' "(habitually) giving to the singer." If this were an agent nominal, we would expect papurim jaritruh

vavri- 'cover, shell' (vr 'cover, surround, restrain', 3p1. perf. vavrur) is clearly a cakri-type formation that must have been lexicalized with the meaning 'shell' or 'hiding place' (

RV 1.54.10cd: abhim indro nadyo vavrina hitd, visva anustah pravanesu jighnate Indra bekampft alle von dem Einsperrer der Fliisse (9) gemachten Anstalten in den Strom-gefallen. (Geldner, RV 1: 71) Geldner takes vavri- to have the meaning 'restraining, restrainer' in this passage, which would then provide an instance of the original meaning of this formation, in contrast to the lexicalized meaning 'shell'.

One more case should be mentioned: 'anasi- 'reaching' (as/ams'reach') in vyanasi- 'reaching, penetrating' (3p1. perf. anasur). The paradigmatic differentiation of the root (see [LIV.sup.2]: 282f.: * [[h.sub.2]nek]) and its perfect stem in Vedic indicate that this must be a comparatively late formation. Kummel (2000: 284ff.) posits two synchronic perfect stems, (RV-YV) and anams-lanaf- (RV+). The latter prevails already in the Rigveda and is presumably the younger formation. Since almost all of the other reduplicated i-stems are synchronically aligned with the weak stem of the corresponding perfect, we can safely assume that vyanasi-is an inner-Vedic formation based on the weak stem of prevalent anams-lanas-. The fact that it is attested with an accusative object implies that this syntactic behavior was perceived as a core property of the type, even for new formations:

RV 3.49.3ab: sahava prtsu taranir narva, vyanasi rodasi mehanavan Mighty in the fights like a traversing runner, pervading (10) both worlds, full of generosity ... The other instances of reduplicated i-stems with participial behavior are dadhi- 'placing, creating' in RV 10.46.1c, sasni- 'winning' (with both an accusative object and modification by the temporal adverb dive-dive 'daily' in RV 9.61.20), and sasri- 'running', which takes a locative "argument" in RV 10.99.4ab gosu (. . .) pradhanyasu sasrih "running for the cows that constitute the prize." Finite formations of the root sr also take locatival arguments/adverbials, the syntagm meaning 'running because of/for/in order to reach (sth.)'. As in the case of jagmi-, the locative is probably to be analyzed as an event-delimiting adverbial rather than a real argument, but it is instructive that the verbal adjective preserves the event structure of the verbal root it is derived from.

To summarize, of the Rigvedic reduplicated i-stems roughly a third are attested with structural (i.e., accusative) objects and/or adverbial modifiers (see Table 2 in the appendix). These syntactic properties indicate that they are not agent nouns but deverbal nominalizations comparable in syntactic behavior to English "ACC-ing" (11) I I nominalizations and Vedic active participles. In the few cases where we find genitive rather than accusative objects, we are dealing with substantivizations of such formations--this holds, for example, for 'sasahi- 'victor' in RV 10.166.1a or tutuji- 'inciter' in RV 10.22.3a. Note that in the...