The optative, bhavet, syāt, etc. should often be translated in modern English in an indicative sense.  Is there some formal grammatical documentation for this somewhere?

Related, modern speakers of Indian English often use an optative/subjunctive/conditional "would" where a native British speaker would use a more direct indicative "is".

Best,
Dominik

--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk
,

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
,

University of Alberta, Canada
.

South Asia at the U of A:
 
sas.ualberta.ca