Dear Friends, The Bhaṭṭikāvya has an especially recherché verb form in 2.35: 'vyatiste'. Both Jayamaṅgalā and Mallinātha understand it as 'as' ātmanepada, emphatically illustrating Pāṇini 1.3.14 (kartari karmavyatihāre). The rākṣasa Mārīca has just said that killing brahmins is his dharma, and that he is not allowed to follow a Vedic lifestyle. Rāma responds that his own dharma contrasts, namely to kill him in turn [see below], i.e. reciprocity of action. Whitney seems to think he has seen an ātmanepada form of 'as' 3 pl. 'asate' in the Mahābhārata somewhere, but I can't locate it. Here is the Bhaṭṭikāvya verse:   

dharmo ‘sti satyaṃ tava rākṣasāyam anyo vyatiste tu mamāpi dharmaḥ/

brahmadviṣas te praṇihanmi yena rājanyavṛttir dhṛtakārmukeṣuḥ// (2.35) 


My question=has anyone ever come across a comparable form?

Thanks as always, bhavadīyaḥ,J
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Jesse Ross Knutson PhD
Associate Professor of Sanskrit Language and Literature
Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
461 Spalding