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PAUL DUNDAS
PRAKRIT AVVO
Although interjections and exclamations occupy an understandably minor place in the study of Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, they are not without their difficulties. For not only is there often uncertainty about their precise semantic significance but, in addition, the interdependence and mutual conditioning of these words can make an accurate unravelling of their etymology and relationship to each other extremely awkward'. Tempting though it is to regard all exclamations as basically onomatopoeic, Thieme has shown that for at least one Indo-Aryan example a cogent derivation can be made 2. This short paper has been prompted by one such word, the Prakrit exclamation avvo.
The grammarian Vararuci glosses avvo at Präkṛtaprakāśa3 9.10 stating that it is used << in the sense of distress, indication or reflection >> (duḥkhasücanäsambhavaneșu). Hemacandra in his Prakrit grammar 2.204 expands this considerably: « avvo is used in the sense of indicating, distress, (in) conversation, (with regard to) an offence, (in the sense of) astonishment, joy, respect, fear, vexation, depression or repentance » (avvo sūcanāduḥkhasambhāṣaṇāparādhavismayānandādarabhayakhedavişadapaścättäpe). The tenth-century lexicographer Dhanapala in his Paiyalacchi 5 verse 275 glosses avvo by kheyaisu, « in the sense of vexation etc. » while the glossary (s.v.) states «< interject. ho. ». The Paiasaddamahannavo (s.v.) repeats Hemacandra's gloss while Ratnachandraji,
1. COLLETTE CAILLAT, Pour une Nouvelle Grammaire du Päli, Torino, 1970, pp. 18-9. 2. PAUL THIEME, Der Fremdling im RgVeda, Leipzig, 1938, pp. 3-6, for observations on are and re.
3. Ed. P. L. Vaidya, Poona, 1931.
4. Ed. R. Pischel, Halle, 1877.
5. Ed. G. Bühler, Göttingen, 1879.
6. Ed. Hargovind Das T. Sheth, Varanasi, 1963.
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Ardha-Māgadhi Dictionary 7 (s.v.) states that the word occurs in the Supārsvanāthacarita as a particle expressing sorrow ».
avvo is not infrequent in Prākrit literature, although it is often only possible to assign meaning to it on the basis of the context of the passages in which it occurs. A verse in the Vasudevahindi 8 describes eight Jaina monks sitting at the bottom of a kapistha tree and being struck by falling fruit: avvo 'tti vāharanti hasanti ca sisā, « they said avvo and their pupils laughed at them ». The Sattasai' contains several examples of avvo (verses 273, 306, 475, 536, 581, 746, 748 corrupt: abbo, 821, 892 and 910), all occurring in verses in which the speaker refers to a (generally unhappy) love affair, with the exception of verse 821 which I quote:
avvo na āmi chettam khajjau sālī vi kīranivahehim jānamtā avi pahiā pucchamti puno puno maggam
« avvo! I'm not going to the field! Let the rice be eaten by the swarms of insects! The travellers, although they know it, continually ask me the way ».
The commentators on the Sattasai gloss the occurrences of avvo in the anthology variously: duhkhasūcanāyām, āścaryacamatkāre, kaste, sambuddhiduḥkhayon, khede.
The word also occurs in Koühala's (9th century?) Māhārāstrī kāvya, the Līlāvai 10, verse 464: paricimtiy' amhi avvo katto sā mayanabanataviyamgi, «I thought, "avvo! where is she, tormented by love's arrows?" Jayasimhasüri (9th century), in a version of the well-known story of Mūladeva contained in his Dharmopadeśamālāvivarana 11 employs avvo several times. On being dragged from under the courtesan Devadattā's bed by his rival Ayala, Mūladeva tells him to do as he wishes to which Ayala replies (p. 103, line 22): avvo, mahanubhāvo eso, « avvo, this is a noble man ». After being released by Ayala, Mūladeva reflects (p. 103, line 28): avvo kaham appaņam paccoggayaayasakalamkiyam nāyarayānam dāyemi, « avvo! how can I show myself, stained by my present shame, to the city people? ». When, before entering the forest, he sees a dhakka brahman, Mūladeva says (p. 103, line 31): avvo imassa sambalen' āham pi mahāļavim lamghissāmi, « avvo! I will get through the forest by means of this mans provisions ». At the end of the journey, Müladeva, who has not received any food from the brahman, exclaims (p. 104, line 3-4): avvo eyassa mahānubhāvassa āsāe mae adavi voliņā, « avvo! I crossed the forest hoping to get something) from this generous man ». When he sees a Jaina monk, Mūladeva says (p. 104, lines 7-8): avvo bahupunnapāvanijjo esa mahappā visesao māsapāraṇae, « avvo! the
7. Ajmer, 1923.
8. Quoted by J.C. JAIN, The Vasudevahindi, an Authentic Jaina Version of the Brhat kathā, Ahmedabad, 1977, p. 215.
9. Ed. A. Weber, Leipzig, 1881. 10. Ed. A. N. Upadhye, Bombay, 1966. 11. Ed. L. B. Gandhi, Bombay, 1949.
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noble man is full of holiness, especially at the end of a month-long fast ». Finally, meeting Ayala again, Müladeva thinks (p. 105, line 24): avvo katth' ittha Ayalo, « avvo! how is Ayala here?».
avvo is also found in Apabhramśa. The tenth-century writer Puşpadanta employs it in his Nāyakumāracariu 12 while it also occurs in Somaprabha's Kumārapālapratibodha 13. No doubt other occurrences of the form could be adduced.
The interlocking relationship of Middle Indo-Aryan exclamations dictates that avvo cannot be considered in isolation from other forms of a similar nature. The lending -o is found in exclamations such as āmo, ambho, hambho, and bho 14 and is presumably derived from -aḥ 15. However, a simple comparison with āmo, ambho etc. cannot provide a full explanation for the origin of avvo. According to the Critical Pāli Dictionary (s.v.), ambho is « a particle of exclamation (1) used to attract attention, (2) in the sense of reproach, rejection or warning, (3) sometimes, expressive of appreciation or admiration ». I take this form to be an expansion of āma/āmo, « an interjection of assent or recollection, "yes","indeed " >> 16, the equivalent of Sanskrit ām, « an interjection of assent or recollection » 17. While it might be possible to derive avvo from āmo if a development of -m->-V-18 with compensatory gemination was assumed, the word has a broader field of semantic significance than mere « affirmation or assent », as an examination of the grammarian's glosses and the examples given above will show.
It seems worthwhile to broaden this consideration of exclamation to include a form similar to āmasāmo but clearly different in meaning, namely, ammo. Charpentier, commenting on Uttarajjhayanasutta 19.10 19, mentions Pischel's view that ammo contains the particle u but himself suggests that the «curious vocative > is an old dual *ammāu, «father and mother ». In fact, a cursory examination of a few examples demonstrates that ammo is a vocative with the sense of «O mother! », the ending - no doubt occurring by analogy with other Middle Indo-Aryan exclamations. In the Uvāsagadasāo 20, a man addresses his mother (pp. 78-9): evam khalv ammo ņa jānāmi, « truly, mother, I do not know ». In the
12. Ed. Hiralal Jain, Berar, 1937, glossary (s.v.).
13. Ed. Ludwig Alsdorf, Hamburg, 1928, p. 141. Cf. the latish Kathäkośa ed. 1. Hoffman, Munich, 1974, p. 11, for the same verse.
14. Note also Mägadhi hamgho discussed by G. ROTH, Beiträge zur Indienforschung, Berlin, 1977, pp. 424-30, and Pāli abbhu, the opposite of bho and «an interjection expressive of "aversion " (Critical Pāli Dictionary s.v. abbhum).
15. Critical Päli Dictionary s.v. āma regards āmo as an extended form of ama and compares the alternations no : na and atho : atha.
16. Critical Pali Dictionary s.v. 17. M. MONIER-WILLIAMS, Sanskrt-English Dictionary s.v.
18. For -m->-V- see R. PISCHEL, A Comparative Grammar of the Präkrt Languages, 1965, paragraph 251.
19. The Űttarādhyayanasūtra ed. Jarl Charpentier, Upssala, 1922, p. 348. 20. Ed. R. Hoernle, Calcutta, 1890.
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Vasudevahindi", a boy addresses his mother (p. 11, line 17): ammo ajuttam bhe jäņamänehim kayam ti, a mother, you have acted wrongly in full knowledge »; a cow is spoken to by her calf (p. 13, lines 16-17 teņa vaccheņa māņustvāуãe bhaṇiyā gāvi, ammo eso ko vi puriso amejjhalittam se payam me uvarim phusati, « the cow was addressed by the calf in human speech, "Mother, this man is rubbing his filthy foot on me "»; a girl addresses her mother (p. 32, lines 9-10): māyā ya nae bhaniyā ammo anehi tāva alattayam, « she addressed her mother, "Mother, bring me the lac "». In one of the Avaśyaka stories 22, a boy speaks to his mother: kim ammo ruyasi, « why are you weeping, mother? ». In his vrtti on the Akhyānikamanikoşa of Nemicandra, the twelfth-century writerAmradeva employs the word ammo when a daughter is addressing her mother (p. 40, verse 65) 24.
«
The possibility of a connection between the exclamation avvo and the vocative ammo is given greater weight by adducing the well-attested Dravidian forms avva used in the sense of « mother, grandmother, old woman » 25 and ammā, « mother, matron, lady; exclamation of pity, surprise or joy » 26. Without attempting to delineate in a precise manner the relationship between these forms, it nevertheless seems reasonable to suggest that there was originally a Middle Indo-Aryan vocative *avva « O mother! » (cf. Pāli amma) which was << conditioned »>, to use Caillat's expression, by the group of interjections amo, ambho etc. A development from an original specialised sense of « mother» to the broad spectrum of meaning given by Hemacandra and apparent in our examples may seem unlikely but, in fact, the invoking of one's mother to convey alarm, distress or astonishment is not unknown in other languages. A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary Volume II 27 states that << mother >> can be used as an exclamation of surprise, dismay etc. Compare also the Italian mamma mia, « goodness gracious! >> 28
It might be thought worth considering whether avvo ever occurs with the same concrete vocative sense as ammo. The Sattasai, which
21. Ed. Caturvijaya and Punyavijaya, Bhavnagar, 1930.
22. E. LEUMANN, Die Avasyaka Erzählungen, Leipzig, 1897, p. 13, line 33. 23. Ed. Punyavijayaji, Vārānasī, 1962.
24. Note in addition Vasudevahindi, p. 46 line 11: să vi ya Sāmadatṭā oyāriyā rahāto paḍiyā ammopãesum, « S. was helped down from the chariot and fell at her mother's feet ». It is unclear whether ammo here is a genuine stem form or a simple misprint.
25. BURROW and EMENEAU, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, Oxford, 1961, paragraph 232.
26. Ibid., paragraph 154, where a comparison is made with Sanskrit ambā and the Prakrit interjection of surprise, ammo/ammahe although, according to the Paiasaddamahanṇavo, the evidence for the latter form seems to derive solely from Hemacandra's grammar and the dramatic Prakrits, a notoriously unreliable source. WEBER, ZDMG 27, 1874, p. 416, mentions some Dravidian parallels in the sense of << father>> provided by Stevenson.
27. Oxford, 1976, p. 1048, s.v. mother.
28. Cambridge Italian Dictionary, Cambridge, 1962, s.v. mamma.
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________________ Prakrit Avvo 167 contains several examples of the word, is a text traditionally associated with the Deccan, the intersecting point of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian culture, and the poets of the anthology might be expected to have been sensitive to the Dravidian word avva. Kinship terms are of some importance in the Sattasai, often helping to define the emotional context of a verse 29, and most of the verses in which avvo occurs are very similar in tone to those in which a girl addresses her mother or an older, more experienced confidante (the terms of address generally being mae, << mother! >>, maua, << mothers! >>, mami, << auntie! >>) about some problem which is vexing her. However, the occurrence of avvo followed by a masculine vocation in verse 273 30 shows that in one verse at least the word can only be an exclamation. Nevertheless, the chronology and circumstances of the composition of the Sattasai are still fairly obscure and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some of the verses preserve the original vocative sense of avvo. 29. Compare especially verses in which the brother-in-law (deara) and the mother-in-law (atta) are participants. 30. avvo dukkaraaraa puno vi tattim karesi gamanassa ajja vi na homti sarala venia taramgino cihura << avvo! doer of the difficult! you are preoccupied with going off again. Even on this day, the dishevelled hair of my braid does not become straight >>.