Collected Articles Of LA Schwarzschild On Indo Aryan 1953 1979

Author(s): Royce Wiles
Publisher: Australian National University

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L. A. SCHWARZSCHILD
paikka's 'servant'. These words come from *rájikya, *nayikya, and perhaps *padâtikya, based on raja, nayaka, and padáti respectively. The majority of the instances where -kka is derived from Sanskrit -kya may be explained as adjectives with the suffix -ya formed from nouns in -ka in Sanskrit. These adjectives then often became nouns, as for instance trailokya > Prakrit telokka, which originally meant 'associated with the three worlds', hence 'the three worlds' already in Sanskrit. Similar in development must be "gonikya 'associated with cows' > Prakrit gonikka 'a herd of cattle' (quoted in the Desinamamala) and probably also Prakrit mahisikka 'a herd of buffalo' (ibid.). A doubtful example of Prakrit -kka from -kya is *satakya 'used for chariots'>"satakka modern Hindi sarak 'road' from *sataka, by metathesis from sakata 'a chariot'. From the numerous occurrences of -kka, whether from consonant +-ka or from -kya there was abstracted the new Prakrit suffix -kka, which had the advantage over the 'svårthe' -ka of being more distinctive: -ka had lost its initial -k- when added to a word ending in a vowel.
The substitution of this new suffix for the older and less expressive 'svârthe' -ka accounts for a number of words that were listed by the Prakrit grammarians and the modern grammars following on them as showing irregular doubling of the consonant --. Examples are måukka from Sanskrit myduka 'soft' (used also in the sense of Sanskrit mydutva 'softness'), tuphikka 'silent' from Sanskrit tasnika, mandukka 'a frog' from Sanskrit mandûka; ekka 'one' from Sanskrit eka, a word where the doubling was particularly important as avoiding homonymic clashes. Some words with -Icka have been explained as Sanskrit loanwords in Prakrit, and the double consonant is therefore regarded as showing the learned preservation of the Sanskrit intervocalic consonant -k-. These words probably belong rather to this category of substitution of the more distinctive prakritic suffix -kka for ka sakka from Sanskrit svaka 'one's own', kanikkd from Sanskrit kavika 'a grain', sálakkia which comes from Sanskrit sårikå 'a kind of bird'. Sometimes there was no 'svârthe' -ka in the corresponding Sanskrit word and the suffix -kka was newly introduced in Prakrit. This has occurred for instance in Prakrit ledhukka, from Sanskrit lestu 'a lump'. In some words of very uncertain origin, often listed as Desi words by the Indian grammarians this final is also found: e.g. phirakka 'a waggon', tikka 'a spot' (though this might have some connection with Sanskrit tilaka 'a mark'), pikka 'pure', khadakki 'a side door' and a number of others. There
15. J. BLOCH, loe, eit. regards this as a borrowing from Persian.
16. P. THIME, op. cit. p. 184-185.
17. R. L. TURNER, op. cit. s.v. tilo.
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PRAKRIT THAKKA, "TIRED'
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are many words in the modern vernaculars that go back to originals in -kka not attested's in Prakrit or Apabhramsa, but of considerable geographic extension, such as "tukkal a piece' > modern Hindi fûk, *tokka 'a basket' > modern Hindi tolerâ. In some of these cases the suffix -kka has been substituted for the original final of the word: thus modern Hindi mulcká 'a fist' from "mukka for mutthi < multi, Hindi math, 'a handle'.
There is then no doubt of the existence of a very lively nominal and verbal suffix -kka in Prakrit, though it has no one particular point of origin in Sanskrit. The maximum extension of this suffix was probably at the time of the formation of the modern vernaculars. It is impossible to attribute any uniform meaning to this suffix -kka: among modern verbs one finds such pairs as Hindi ghalakná (formed with the -kk- suffix) 'to lean over' and dhalna 'to fall'; Nepali jhulkanu (with suffix) 'to rise (of sun)' and jhulnu 'to swing'. In some verbs the suffix might have an emphatic meaning and this may be due to its association with onomatopoeic verbs. In some nouns one could see in it a diminutive meaning, but on the whole the function of this suffix is one of formal enlargement, expressiveness and avoiding of confusion with other words.
None of the functions of the suffix -kka mentioned hitherto would explain directly the development of thakka 'tired', 'stationary' from the root stha- 'to stand'. Sthâ- does not share similarity in consonants with the group of verbs pac-, sus- etc. Thakka cannot therefore be simply classed as one of the past participles of the type mukka. It is certainly a later formation than mukka, as it does not figure in the early canonical Prakrit texts, and only is a feature of Jaina Mähârâstri and particularly of Apabhramsa. By the time of the formation of the adjective thakka there must have been already a definite suffix -kka, which had little enough semantic significance, but was phonetically strong. Thus it is most likely that thakka belongs to the third category of words discussed, namely that it represents an enlargement of the adjective tha<Sanskrit stha 'standing', which was generally used enclitically; tha formed thakka, just as Prakrit ledhu lump' for instance formed ledhukka. Thakka was not the only derivative of this type associated with/sthâ- 'to stand'. The past participle sthita> this was similarly enlarged and gave *thiakka whence the modern
18. Some of these have been explained by J. BLOCE (loc. eit) as borrowings from
the Dravidian.
19. This might be connected with the Sanskrit root, truf- 'to break".
20. This is a particular characteristic of 'slang' endings (cf. Jespersen op. cit. p. 300) as for instance the ending -y which can replace all sorts of finals in Australian: football footy; Tasmania > Tasy; swagman > swaggy etc.
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