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In Search of the Original Ardhamāgadhi
K.R. Chandra
4.
In the sūtra 8.2.138, the examples ‘avaha'and 'uvaha' for the word 'ubhaya' are quoted, and the vṛtti adds arṣe ubhayokālam, it means that in the Ardhamāgadhi the medial 'bh' does not change to h' in this word. It is not invariable that the medial bh'generally not changes to 'h'in the archaic Prakrit language. This characteristic is traced in the senior Agama texts edited by western scholars like Jacobi, Schübring, Charpentier, Alsdorf, etc.
Medial dental n n or (cerebral) :
As per the sūtra 8.1.228, the medial dental -n- changes to cerabral --, but the vṛtti adds ‘ārṣe āranālam, anilo, analo ityādy api.
5.
This trait of the change of medial dental -n- to cerebral -n- belongs to South India as per the Ashokan inscriptions, and it spreads to other regions later on; it is not at all a linguistic feature of the Eastern India".
6. Under the sutra 8.1.254, about 25 examples of the change of r to I have been quoted in the vṛtti, at the end of which it is added ‘ārṣe duvālasange ityādyapi'. In the Ashokan inscriptions the forms (for the word dvādaśa) that are found are duvāḍasa and duvāļasa. Later on the d'and 'changes to 7: The process of the change of r'to 7'does not belong to the Sauraseni or Mahārāṣṭri; or it rather belongs to the Magadhi and therefore to the Eastern region. It is more probable that those words, as with such a change,as are found in the Vrtti came down from the Ardhamāgadhi to the other Prakrits and became popular therein.
7. In the vṛtti on the sutra 8.1.26., the parallels given in the Arṣa for the words manaḥśilā and atimuktakam are maṇosilā and aimuttayam, respectively, while for the Prakrits the forms given are maṇamsilā and aimumtayam, respectively. This process of transforming one of the assimilated conjunct consonant into anuswāra, maṇassilā maṇamsilā and aimuttayam aimumtayam, is believed to be belonging to a later period.
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