________________
VARIANT FORMS OF THR LOCATIVE IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN 83
L 1. SCHIWAR SCHILD
established in the locative case of nouns of the- and - declension (aggimni, bahummi). They gradually spread to nouns of the - declension at the expense of the original - ending. particularly in the cast, as is evident from the Asokan inscriptions (Bloch 1950: 19). In verse, owing to the contingencies of metre, usage seems to be very free; -smin and can occur in Pali verse, and they occur quite indiscriminately even in the most archaic Jain verses:
Ayaramga-sulta 9.1.1.
sisiramsi addha-padiranne tam vsaja sattham 'when the cold season has half begun he should abandon his outer garment'
here
si and
are used side by side.
These Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit endings confirm the following general rule for Middle Indo-Aryan:
In locative singular endings beginning with a nasal conso
nant the final nasal consonant is lost by dissimilation. 4. The Apabhrama ending -ahim is of interest in that it clearly belongs to group a) and has retained the final nasal. It must be derived from amin by means of a development through assim > asim akim > alim. This is already foreshadowed by the pronominal forms of the type tassim, the adverbially used and relatively unaccented Mühüristri tahim <tasmin 'there', and by the Magadhi ending-alim. There can be no doubt that in this respect, as in other features of morphology, Apabhrama differed totally from the literary traditions of the central dialects, where endings of group b), notably -mi, were prevalent.
It seems therefore that the list of locative singular endings derived from min is only apparently diverse and complex, there is in fact great uniformity in the central dialects. The peripheral dialects show diversity only as a result of the influence of the important literary traditions of the central dialects.
D. THE LOCATIVE ENDING - The main problem of optional usage in the locative in Middle Indo-Aryan arises from the survival of the Sanskrit nominal locative ending alongside the derivatives of the original pronominal ending - min. It has sometimes been stated (Pischel 366a) that there is complete liberty in Maharastri, Jain Mahtristri and Jain Sauraseni with regard to the locative singular ending, nouns and adjectives in any position in a phrase or sentence can be used with either-m or , and evidence can be quoted to prove this fact. But this does not take into account the relative chronology of the texts and the stylistic aspects of Prākrit usage.
1. THE USAGE OF THE EASTERN DIALECTS
Throughout the literary Middle Indo-Aryan dialects the derivatives of the old pronominal endingsmin were well
Although the use of the derivatives of min is slightly more limited in Ardhamagadhi prose., it is nevertheless comparatively wide-spread, c.g. logamsi occurs more frequently than loe in the meaning in this world': - remains mainly in fixed formulae such as antie 'in the vicinity of (1.1.8.) and in place-names. This is characteristic of the eastern dialects: the other extreme is represented by Sauraseni where only occurs.
2. THE USAGE OF MAHĀRĀSTRI
It is in the central and western dialects that the subtle distinctions between the two types of locative ending are most noticeable. In the early Jain Maharastri of the Vasudevahindi the distribution of -and-smin is practically the same as in Sanskrit, with-smin confined to pronominal adjectives and pronouns, c.g. p. 80.17 syammi ya desayale and at that time and place, 178.17 tammiya zamse 'and in this family. The locative of a noun like majjha 'middle' is invariably majjhe. -mmi is extremely rare in both nouns and adjectives and seems to convey a certain emphasis on the location when it does occur: simantammti samtio sattho 'the caravan was stopped right at the edge'
181 -
- 180 -
