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94
प्राकृतसर्वस्वम् ।
the final ka becomes o and that the ca in the middle of the word is elided. Then he cites an example from an unknown dramatic work :
gye a SW3737 173737 o F# THOTE311 4C FSTT III. 3. 24 Kīcaka was slain by Bhima ( disguised as Draupadi who cried ): come Kīcaka, Kicska, look at me '.
According to him the initial a of aranya is not elided in this dialect and l is sometimes substituted for d and r. Then the most important peculiarity of this dialect given by him is that the nom. sing. of a bases always ends in o ( unlike e or i in Mg. ). This must be viewed as a significant departure from the group of dialects owing their origin to Mg." As for other inforur. ation regarding this dialect we learn that the words bhattārakaḥ, yathā and tathā become bhatto, jidha and tidha respectively. Also the vocative sing. of a-stems generally ends in â in this dialect. As the first verse of Rt indicates, the author bad consulted some earlier authorities in this respect. Unfortunately we have no such information regarding the dialect from sources other than Mk and Rt. Both of them do not inform us as to who should speak this in a play. According to Bh. either Abhīrī or Šābarī is to be assigned to herdsmen who live on cows, horses, goats, sheep or camels (XVII. 55). Visvanātha tells almost the same thing with a little difference.80 Bh's theory of using Ābhiri
78. Sābari too has both e and i in nom. sing. as in My (Mk XV. 3).
79. In Mg à in voc, is derogatory while in Šābari it is hono. rifie. This has been pointed out earlier.
80. abhiresu tathābhīrī- SD VI. 168. Here the author does not consider Abhirī to be used alternatively with Śābari and limits the dialect to co wherds alone.
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