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An Unassimilated Group in Apabhramsa
85
nāgara.
In the light of these distinctions it is not possible to accept without the reservation the conclusion of Alsdorf that the Apabhraíśa forms represent an earlier stage of growth than the Prākrits. In some cases at least it remains doubtful whether the Prākrit forms went through the stage represented by Apabhramśa, especially in words like nrva, nrvai, etc. In others, the Prākrit and Apabhramśa forms represent divergent lines of growth. Thus the Apabhramsa form mahādraha cannot form an earlier stage of Pkt. mahaddaha, obviously because the geminated consonant in Prākrit cannot be a further development of the Apabhraíśa conjunct dr and the same holds good in case of Ap. āņāprāna Pkt. anappāņa. Because the majority of the Apabhraíśa words keep these groups initially and in such cases the Prākrit represent only a single consonant at the beginning of a word, the relation of the two is not amenable to exact proof. So the conclusion of our enquiry can only be negative. The light conjuncts of the normal Apabhramśa cannot be taken as a dialectal feature and may or may not represent an earlier stage of growth with reference to the assimilated forms of Apabhramśa itself and the Prā If their relation to the other Apabhramsa forms may be that of archaic survival among the current usage and in this limited sense they may be earlier, their priority to the Prākrit forms remains doubtful. It is however possible that r-groups of the heavy type were a dialectal feature of vrācada Apabhramśa.
Annotations : 1. Cf. Pischel : Grammatic der Präkrit-Sprachen, p. 186. 2. Cf. Grierson : The Eastern School of Prakrit Grammarians (Mookerjee Vol. III, 2.
p. 119 foll).. 3. Nitti-Dolci : Les Grammairiens Prakrits, pp. 165 foll. 4. Introduction to Bhavisattakaha, München. 1918, p. *76. 5. Ibid. p. *71.
6. Jacobi; Introduction to Sanamkumāracariu, München, 1921, p. XX. 7. Le Prākstānnuśāsana de Purusottama, Paris, 1938, p. 109.
8. The Apabhraṁsa Stabakas of Rāmaśarman IA. (reprint). 9. p. *72. 10. p. XXI.