The use of ās- ‘sit’ and vas- ‘dwell’ plus participle and gerund from Early Vedic to Epic Sanskrit

Abstract

The auxiliary ās- ‘sit’ is one of a set of verbs that forms iterative-continuative periphrases in Sanskrit, but it has hardly been studied. While modern-day Sanskrit grammars acknowledge its presence, a comprehensive investigation into its usage is lacking. Given the lack of studies on the ās- periphrasis, this paper explores the verbal construction constituted of the root ās- ‘sit’ plus participle or gerund from Early Vedic to Epic Sanskrit, also offering a brief comparison with vas- ‘dwell, live’. A few passages from Vedic prose show vas- in combination with participles and gerunds in a similar use of that with ās-, but these contexts have never been extensively studied in the literature.