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264
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
above is not quite clear, and may mean 'with what precedes and what follows,' equally well as with repetition of the preceding.' In no case can it mean what Burnouf imagines. Fortunately the expression occurs often enough in the Lalitavistára to enable us to determine its signification. In Lalitav. 320, 18, we see that the words peydlam yávat are equivalent to the expression parvavadyávat, which occurs four lines previously, that is, as before on to.' Hence it follows not that peydlam signifies properly the same as purvavat; for if it be once supposed that the word signified 'repetition,' it would then be a matter of indifference whether we said 'repetition (da capo) on to,' or as before on to,' without implying thereby that the ideas 'as before' and 'repetition' were in themselves allied. To confirm this further, I refer to p. 445, where peyalam has a synonym, or substitute, vistarena yávat, i.e. copious (to complete) on to. To determine the sense completely, we must avail ourselves of the word preydla, which also occurs more than once.in the Lalitavistára, and which plainly is nothing else than the Sanskrit or Sanskriticized form of peydla. The circumstance that wherever the Prakrit peydla stood as a technical, almost algebraic term, the compilers of the said book have neglected to translate it into Sanskrit, is an additional proof for the view that Sanskrit is of comparatively late date in the writings of the northern Buddhists. Where preyalam is found fully written, it is not a technical term, but has a meaning which can easily be felt. This preydlam admits of being represented by another Sanskrit word, viz. bhúyas, in the various applications in which the latter can be used. Thus we read, immediately after a song addressed by the good sons of M&ra the Wicked, to their father, Lalitavist. 397, 7:
'Preyalam evam te sarve Máraputraḥ-Máram pápiyasam prithakprithag gáthábhir adhyabhá shanta,' i.e. Thus spoke again (Sans. bhayas) all those sons of Mara to Mâr a the Wicked, alternately in songs.'
"The meaning of preyalam comes out less clearly p. 369, 11; because the verse is corrupt, or has been spoiled by the editor.
"When we compare the particulars now adduced with each other, when we remember the opposi
We meet with the same error in the double y in moneyya, and the absurd double s in assa. It is perfectly evident to every one who is willing to see it that the manufacturers of the Pall knew nothing of the pronunciation.
§ This is certainly the reason why so acute a philologist as Papini did not recognize the word as the comparative of puru. For the same reason he failed to see that bhiyas is a comparative of bhari. Properly, prayas is not irregular; it has originated from an old Indo-Germ. pèraias, which must have been another form of praias (compare Lat.
[SEPTEMBER, 1876.
tion so common between parvam and bhúyas, and keep in view that bhúyas signifies 'more, ample,' as much as later, subsequent,' then there can remain no doubt that preydlam, Prakrit peydlam, is bhúyas. The Pâli form peyydlam might, where it appears as a substantive, correspond to a praiyalyam or to bhúyastvam; but that makes no difference in the main idea of the word. The double yy in the Pâli is one of the many instances which show clearly that the regulators of that artificial and literary language have been frequently very unfortunate in rendering Magadhi words, which they misunderstood on account of the old spelling, which did not usually express the doubling of consonants. That we may be convinced of this we shall investigate the etymology of the word. There is, in Sanskrit, a comparative of puru (from peru), viz. prayas, which is used exclusively in the neuter, though the full form masculine frayan, neut. frdyo, is still preserved in Baktrian. This prdyas is (apparently) regular, inasmuch as it has Vriddhi instead of Gana,§ but the form is perfectly regular in other IndoGermanic languages; thus Greek λeîov (mas. Tea), Latin plus, from plois (plais), Norse fleir. The superlative is lost in Sanskrit,-it must have been preshtha; but as there is an entirely different preshtha from priya, it is probable that the form was avoided, and then fell into desuetude. On the contrary, the Baktrian still possesses fraeshta, Greek mλcioros, Norse flestr (for fleestr, fleistr, by the shortening of the vowel on account of the two consonants following). In making acquaintance with the Sanskrit preyálam, Magadhi peydle, we learn at the same time the remarkable circumstance that along with prayas there must also have existed in Sanskrit a form preyas, the use of which was also avoided, as being a homonym of the comparative of priya. The suffix ala joined to preyas, or rather to preya Sans. prdyja, "multitude," has, on the one hand, an extensive or augmentative force, and, on the other hand, an iterative, and therefore a diminutive force. In preydla, to judge by the common signification, ala is rather augmentative, and, as augmentative and comparative ideas coincide, preyála is to be compared with the Dutch double comparatives meerder, eerder; in nature and form, though not in meaning, preydla agrees with the Lat. plusculus. Having
trans with Sans. tiras, Indo-Germ. teras). The form puru is not identical with Gr. roλu, and as little is guru identical with Bapus, or Prakrit garu. Whoever asserts that guru is a corrupt form from garu (instead of from geru) mast also show that kshipra is a corrupt form from ksheplyan, daru from daviyan, &c. One of the many counterfeits of prayas, from peraias, is Lat. gravis, from geravis. It is now high time that the superficial assertion of Bopp, that è and r (re, er) were not old Indo-Germ., should no longer be regarded.
