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VARIANT FORMS OF THE LOCATIVE IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN 81
2. In the Jain Saurasenī dialect of the Digambara texts locative singular forms in -mh are not uncommon, they occur particularly in the Bhagavatī Ārādhana and in the Kattıgeyānupekkhā their occurrence is now so well attested that they can no longer be dismissed as a mistake, as was done by Pischel (§ 366). They show a survival of the western traditions of the Girnar inscriptions and of Pali, and they continued to exist alongside the forms in -mm which had spread from the central dialects. The Jain Saurasenī texts thus show optional variants in the locative forms due to regional literary influences.
3. The regional variants of the locative singular ending as listed above fall into two main groups:
a.
b.
those forms of the old ending -smin in which the nasal consonant has become the initial and dominant member:
-msi, -mmi, -mmi, -mmi, -mhi.
It can be seen clearly that the final nasal has invariably disappeared by dissimilation in this second group of endings which all begin with a nasal. This evidence is confirmed by Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit where we find the same two groups of endings:
a. --asmin, -asmim and probably -esmin.
Arguments in favour of the existence of -esmin have been put forward by Roth (1966: 44) and there is also a probable occurrence of a similar ending in Māhārāṣṭrī: eesim ceya ciyanalammi 'in this fire which had been heaped up' (Kuvalayamālā 48.3: an interpretation of eesim as eteṣām is however just possilbe here).
-amse, -amhi
b. M.M.-11
Those forms of the old ending -smin in which the sibilant (or -h-) has remained the dominant initial member of the consonant cluster -sm-, namely,
-ssim, -ssim, Pali-smim, Māgadhi -āhim, Apabhramśa -him.
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