Query: Can this be true?

[J. Kingston Cowart]

I have been given the following information (but have serious doubts):

1) That both jivata (life) and jivitam (alive)--which are morphologically
almost identical--originally functioned as a past participle of the verb "to
live"; 

2) That it is therefore possible to regard the Sanskrit for "I live in
Dehli" and "I lived in Dehli" as in some sense the same--at least poetically
if not strictly linguistically.  (It is this about which I have my doubts.)

While the first assertion is evidently correct, the second appears to entail
quite an interpretive stretch even in the imagic/poetic context.  

Can anyone tell me if such an interpretation might indeed be the case
nonetheless; and if so, how so; and if not, why not?

Thank you,

J. Kingston Cowart
San Diego, California
jkcowart at io-online.com