Feminine bases in â form their dative in âyai, and thus we find carâyai used in the Veda, VII. 77, 1, as what we should call an infinitive, in the sense of to go. No other cases of carâ have as yet been met with. A similar form is jârâyai, to praise, I. 38, 13.
Datives in aye.
We have next to consider bases in i, forming their dative in áye. Here, whenever we are acquainted with the word in other cases, we naturally take aye as a simple dative of a noun. Thus in I. 31, 8, we should translate sanáye dhánânâm, for the acquisition of treasures, because we are accustomed to other cases, such as I. 100, 13, sanáyas, acquisitions, V. 27, 3, saním, wealth. But if we find, V. 80, 5, dṛśáye naḥ asthât, she stood to be seen by us, lit., for our seeing, then we prefer, though wrongly, to look upon such datives as infinitives, simply because we have not met with other cases of dṛśi-s.
Datives in taye.
What applies to datives of nouns in i, applies with still greater force to datives of nouns in ti. There is no reason why in IX. 96, 4 we should call áhataye, to be without hurt, an infinitive, simply because no other case of áhati-s occurs in the Rig-Veda; while ájîtaye, not to fail, in the same line, is called a dative of ájîti-s, because it occurs again in the accusative ájîti-m.
Datives in tyai.
In ityái, to go, I. 113, 6; 124, 1, we have a dative of iti-s, the act of going, of which the instrumental ityâ occurs likewise, I. 167, 5. This tyâ, shortened to tya, became afterwards the regular termination of the gerund of compound verbs in tya (Grammar § 446), while ya (§ 445) points to an original ya or yai.
Datives in as-e.
Next follow datives from bases in as, partly with accent on the first syllable, like neuter nouns in as, partly with the accent on as; partly with Guṇa, partly without. With regard to them it becomes still clearer how impossible it would be to distinguish between datives of abstract nouns, and other grammatical forms, to be called infinitives. Thus Rv. I. 7, 3 we read dîrghâya cákshase, Indra made the sun rise for long glancing, i.e., that it might glance far and wide. It is quite true that no other cases of cákshas, seeing, occur, on which ground modern grammarians would probably class it as an infinitive; but the qualifying dative dîrghâya, clearly shows that the poet felt cákshase as the dative of a noun, and did not trouble himself, whether that noun was defective in other cases or not.
These datives of verbal nouns in as, correspond exactly to Latin infinitives in ĕre, like vivere (jîváse), and explain likewise infinitives in âre, êre, and îre, forms which cannot be separated. It has been thought that the nearest approach to an infinitive is to be found in such forms as jîváse, bhiyáse, to fear (V. 29, 4), because in such cases the ordinary nominal form would be bháyas-e. There is, however, the instrumental bhiyása, X. 108, 2.