74 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



But, says Caldwell, 'the supposition that the final ka of most Tamil 

 infinitives is in any manner connected with ku, the sign of the Dra« 

 vidian dative and of the Hindi dative-accusative, is erroneous. A 

 comparison of various classes of verbs, and of the various dialects 

 shows that the ka in question proceeds from a totally different, 

 origin.'* I am not prepared to state that in this I quite agree 

 with Mr. Caldwell; but I do believe that the Sinhalese, in which w© 

 find, not a ka as already explained at p. 57, but, a ta both in the 

 dative and in the infinitive, is not indebted to the Bravidian foF 

 the principle of this formation. It should however be borne 

 in mind, that the analogy sought to be deduced is, not that 

 the same form ku occurs in tha dative and the infinitive of 

 both the Dravidian and the Sinhalese; bnt, that though each- 

 uses different forms, yet each employs one and the same sign 

 in the dative noun and the infinitive verb, thus establishing 

 a common principle upon which the dative and the infinitive 

 are formed in those languages. If this principle were recognized^, 

 we should indeed find no difficulty in tracing out the same analo* 

 gies in languages belonging to the Sanskrit family. In the Sans- 

 krit, as in the Sinhalese, the infinitive is ever to be received as the 

 object of a verb expressed or understood. ' As the object of the 

 verb,' says Monier Williams, 'it may be regarded as an equivalent 

 to an indeclinable btibstantive, in which the force of two cases, an 

 accusative and dative, is inherent.' Now in the Sinhalese the 

 infinitive, as well as the accusative and the dative, take the same 

 termination ta. The reason for the adoption of the same inflexion 

 in the infinitive which occurs in the accusative and the dative is 

 therefore obvious. The use of the infinitive, continues Professor 

 Williams, as a substantive, with the force of the accusative case, 

 corresponds to one use of the Latin infinitive; thus, tat sarvam 

 srotum icchdmi, 4 1 desire to hear all that,' id audire cupio, where 

 scrotum and audire are both equivalent to accusative cases, them- 



* p. 423. 



