It is very interesting to understand the intricacies of Past !!!
I was recently listening to a religious discourse and this orator talked about the 3 past tenses in Sanskrit and I was surprised to learn about the same. Thought - why not share it with my friends and enlighten them!
The next time you want to talk about the what happened in the past
think about which past tense you are referring to
Anadyatanabhaviṣyan - Imperfect
Bhuta - Perfect
Paroksabhuta - Remote past
Anadyatanabhaviṣyan - Imperfect
Let's say we hear you discuss with a friend about the lunch you had last week. So you and your friend were present. Unless your friend (or you) have some kind of memory loss you both can confirm. There is no need for an external party and there are no doubts this happened!
Bhuta - Perfect
When we discuss about Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi we are referring to perfect past. This past is a time you not witnessed but guess what you have a lot of sources to confirm that there was a man named MLK Jr and he did like Gandhi's books and Gandhi has no idea about MLK as Gandhi died in 1948 much before MLK was ready for prime time! The truth is we can check on both not only from internet but also interviewing people who lived or know people who lived at that time. In short - verifiable past
Paroksabhuta - Remote Past
All the stories you read about the past - from the caveman to Archimedes, from Socrates to Aristotle, from Aryabhata to Confucius ( I want to stay away from Religious figures). We dont know how they lived, what they did,how they spoke, we think we can verify the time but we may not be really sure! Take Socrates for example - he never wrote anything and there is no recording on what he said except what is in "The Republic" and other books that Plato wrote. What Plato attributes Socrates is what we know as what Socrates said - "An Unexamined life is not worth living " may as well have been said by Socrates or Plato - who knows?
So the next time you discuss the past (which most of us do all the time) check if it - perfect,imperfect or remote past.
There are 2 futures in Sanskrit- google them! They may sound like Greek or Latin - and don't forget Sanskrit is one of the ancient languages like Greek and Latin and people at that time didn't use their time to text,email,facebook,follow,poke,tweet,whatsuped but rather think more about what to think,how to think,what to say,how to say,why to say .. all the other useless stuff that was cool at that time!
Keep Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
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