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INTRODUCTION
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classical Sanskrit. Grammatical standard, howsoever safe, has a limited and relative value; it cannot be avoided altogether, but it has to be supplemented with fresh facts from the various ranges of literature which alone present a historical perspective of the whole language. Remembering that Harişeņa's text is dated and the home of its composition quite definite, the linguistic facts assume a special significance. It is hoped that a student of Sanskrit and allied languages will welcome these facts for what they are worth.
In addition to the orthographical peculiarities noted above (p. 3), it may be added here that sometimes ? has a consonantal pronunciation (17. I, 157. 73 ); $ and s are confused in words like smaśāna or smaśāna and ucchista or utsista (56. 235, 12. 85); y and j are interchanged; and it is not unlikely, if some of them go back almost to the archetype. Hiatus is often allowed not only at the end of a pāda ( 10. 96, 63. 99, 73. 23, etc.) but at times also within the body of it (11. 400, 85.52a etc.). There are some abnormal Samdhis: adyameva (12. 119), khadgastha for khadgahasta (63. 191 ), seşatonmūlayāmi (143. 29), etc. Some words show alternative spellings : Koņikā, Kauņikā (61. 26 f.); Cāņakya, Cāņākya (143. 3 f.); sramana, sravana ( 74. 36 f.); Somila, Somillā (3. 14 f.); while others have fluctuating bases : kusa, kusikā, kusī (104.13 f.); kşīra, ksīri, kşīri (10.71 f.); padaka, patuka, paddika (121. 13 f.). A few words attract our attention with respect to their genders: kşiti M. (93. 246), dhvani F. (60. II), nigraha N. (7.28), bhūmi M. (4. 33), raksa M. (53. 18), vidhi F. (91.22), sandhi F. (11. 42). We meet with some of the feminine bases like these : jātismari (126. 171, 127. 224, also -smarā 126. 196), dhūrti (99. 60), puraḥsari (57. 55). manohari (optional, 76. 162, 97. 3, 127. 227 f.), vaitālikā (64. 70), srāvaki (12. 120). Then bhavanti ( 106.52) for bhavati shows that the fem. suffix is added to the strong base. There are a few words which indicate some partiality towards vowel-ending: for instance, agasc. for āgas (64. 48), cetasa for cetas (12. 84, 70. 156), bhagava for bhagavat (19. II, 46. 117), rodhasa for rodhas (19.9) and sarma for sarman (105. 102); of course the Sanskrit lexicons allow sarma and vardhakin (55. 182) for sarman and vardhaki.
Coming to declensions, we get tari ( 56. 137 ) and sri (57. 262, 127. 208) besides früh in the Nom. sing.; nr-rājan (157. 73) and mahā-rājar (126. 162 ) in the Voc. sing.; and pascimasyāṁ (71. I, 99. 53) for the usual pascimāyāṁ of the Loc. sing. Then asunā (78. 244) is used in sing. perhaps in the sense of atman and anehäḥ (98. 70) in pl. perhaps meaning days, also anehas ( 102. 115) in the sense of time. Among the pronominal forms we get me for mayā in the Inst. sing. (15. 12, 19. 63, 30. 17 and imam for idam neuter Nom. or Acc. sing. (45. 29, 63. 55, also 55. 16). There are some conspicuous numeral formations : caturvinnsat for caturvimsati (105. 331), pancāni for pañca (126. 150), pañcadasāni for pañcadasa (57.460 ), dvādasaih for dvādasabhih (prasasti 12), dvādasama for dvādasa ( 109. 27), and sataikam for ekasatam (concluding colophon).
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