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NOVEMBER, 1880.]
found in the Girnar inscriptions, and which has usually been transcribed as a simple variant of p. Collating all the instances where the facsimiles present the sign with sufficient clearness, and without insisting on the altogether special value of the photographic reproduction given by Mr. Burgess, they prove, what the form itself indicates, that the character really represents the compound pr, the p being completed by the wavy line for r carried upwards. The corrected analysis of the pr-group throws light on others formed similarly by the curvation of the vertical line; these are vr, sr, tr. In xiv, 2, the copy (Corp. Insc.) has pra a mistaken alteration from sra; the word is sarvata, i.e. sarvatra, the r is attached to the s, exactly as the alphabet of the N. West uses dhra for dhar, dhrama for dharma. dra for dar (priyadarsisa), era for sar in sravatra, In both the alphabets of Kapur-di-giri and of Girnar all interpreters seem to have overlooked in these two last as in other cases, the presence of the r, marked nevertheless usually, by a hori zontal stroke below and to the right of the consonant which it accompanies. By a license less singular we find the compound rva expressed by a sign which on the analogy of the preceding we should transcribe vra, in sarvata, ii, 1; 4, and also ii, 6, 7 at least very probably; in sarva vi, 9; 11. There remain to be noted the traces of a more curious r group. In ii, 8, is distinctly read vrachhá, corresponding to the Sanskrit vriksha (Dhauli: lukháni); here r represents the vowel ri, and in reality we ought to read vrichhá. This suggests that we should read also in v., 4 and 6, pra (for pri) inv yapṛitá, written in the following line vyáputá: perhaps, however, we should retain simply the reading vyapata."
PIYADASI INSCRIPTIONS.
"A new and careful revision of Mr. Burgess's facsimiles, our authority most worthy of confidence, enables me," says M. Senart,10 "to complete the proof of the above. One or two instances, which appeared to imply a serious mistake of the engraver's, disappear; many others appear to confirm my proof, and even a new group kra is twice employed in parákramámi and parakramena. Here is a complete table of the groups :
kra, vi, 11, 14.
tra, ii, 4, 7; vi, 4, 5; ix, 2; xiv, 5.
Archeol. Surv. of West. Ind. 1874-75 pl. X. and ffg.
and Ind. Ant. vol. V, plates at pp. 257 to 275.
J. As. tom. XIII, pp. 538, 539.
10 Tom. XV, p..311 ff.
tra, iv, 8 (thrice); vi, 12, 13; xiii, 1. tre, ix, 6, 7.
285
pra, i, 3; iv. 2 (twice), 6, 8; vi, 18; viii, 4; ix, 2, 4; xi, 2; xiii, 1, 4 (twice).
prá, i, 9, 10, 12; ii, 1; iii, 2, 5; iv, 1, 6; xiii, 4. pri, i, 1, 2, 5 (twice), 7 (twice), 8 (twice); ii, 1, 4 (twice); iv, 2 (twice), 5 (twice), 7, 8 (thrice), 12 (twice); v, 1; viii, 2 (twice), 5; ix, 1 (twice), x, 1, 3; xi, 1; xiv, 1 (twice).
vra, ii, 1, 4, 6, 7, 8; iii, 2; v. 4; vi. 5; vii, 1; xiv, 2 (twice).
sra, iv, 2; xiii, 1.
srá, i, 9; vi, 6.
sri, v, 8.
sru, iv, 7 (twice); x, 2; xii 7 (twice). Another compound at Girnar, composed of p and t, was read by Wilson tta; Lassen11 simply admits that to becomes pt in the Girnår dialect; and Burnouf," on the analogy of other groups, read tpa. Kern's transcribes it pta, but says its pronunciation is uncertain. It is found in:-i, 3: arabhitpd; iv, 4: darayitpa; vi, 11: hitatpaya; x, 1: tadátpane; x, 4: parichajitpa; xii, pass.: átpapásanda; xiii, 8: chatpáro; xiv, 4: alochetpá. In short, this group appears in the termination of the absolutive where it is tvá, in the numeral chatpáro where it has the same value, as well as in the suffixes tva and tvana; lastly in apa it corresponds to tm in átma. The form in ordinary Prakrit to which it corresponds in all these examples, which alone. explains its graphic formation, is ppa,-compare appa-átma, the suffix ppaṇa-tvana in Sauraseni, the absolutes in ppi, ppinna of the Apabhramsa" (p. 311-313). The letter then is a historical form and not simply representative; it is the result of a kind of compromise between actual pronunciation (probably pp) and the etymological form (tv and tm) (p. 314).
Next we have in the form composed of s and the dental s with the cerebral mute, and corresponding in turn to sht, shth, st (anusasti), sth (stita), and even tth (ustana) of the Sanskrit. Hemachandra (iv, 299) says that in Mâgadhi-la and shtha ought to be written st; but he adds, in disaccord from the Girnår practice, that stha and rtha are to be written sta. The presence of the dental s is explained by the poverty of the alphabet, in which one sign
11 Ind Alt. II, 227, n. 4.
13 Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 660.
13 Jaartelling, p. 46 and note.
1 Lassen, Inst. L. Prakr. pp. 469, 459.
