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186
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1908.
It seems therefore necessary to divide the Prakrits in two groups, Sauragênt on one side, and Maharashtr, Ardhamagadht, and Magadhi on the other. The former agrees with classical Sanskrit in vocabulary and in its fixed inflexional system, while the latter contains many words which are unknown to classical Sanskrit, and approaches the old Vedio dialects in the rich variety of forms. On the other hand, it should be clearly understood that the dialects of the group differed from each other in many points, jast as is the case with their representatives at the present day. Our knowledge of Mågadhi is too limited to arrive at certain resnlts with regard to that dialect. It may, however, be added that the position ascribed to it well agrees with the relationship of the modern vernaculars of the Magadha country. More definite results would be obtained if we would include the Magadhi of the inscriptions and Páli in the scopo of our inquiries. I cannot, however, now enter upon the many problems connected with those forms of speech.
The relation of Maharashtri to the other Prakrits must, therefore, be defined as follows.
In some characteristics, such as the formation of the nominative singular of masculine a-bases and in the pronunciation of some consonants, it agrees with Saurasóni, and mainly with Ardhamagadhi. Its whole character, however, shows it to be * dialect belonging to a group which comprised the vernaculars of the south and east.
The modern vernaculars of India bave been classified in various ways. If we exclude the languages spoken on the north-western frontier, we may distinguish the following groups ?
1. North-Western Groap, 1. e., Kasmir, Laundâ and Sindhi. 8. Southern Groap - Marathi. 3. Western Group - Gujarati, Panjabi, Rajasthani, Western Hindi. 4. Northern Group - Western Pahart, Central Pahari, Naipall. 5. Mediate Group - Eastern Hindi.
6. Eastern Group, - Assamese, Bengali, Bihari, Oriya. According to Dr. Grierson, the third and fourth group must be considered as mutually connected and as forming one distinct branch which he calls the inner family. The first, the second, and the sixth groups, on the other hand, have certain important characteristics in common, and should be classed together as the outer family. Eastern Hindi forms the link between both.
It will be seen that Dr. Grierson's classification of the modern vernaculars agrees with that proposed above for the Prakrits.
If we abstract from the north-western languagee which have nothing directly corresponding to them in the Prakrits, we find two great divisions, one inner, corresponding to Sauraseni Prakrit, and one outer, corresponding to the southern and eastern Prakrits. To these must be added the dialects sharing some of the characteristics of both, the Mediate Group.
It is clear that such a classification can only be a very rough one. There are numerous cross-divisione, so that it is often a very complicated matter to define precisely the position of a given language. We are, in this place, only concerned with Marith, and it will be necessary to go into some detail in order to illustrate the relationship of that language to other IndoAryan vernaculars.
Dr. Hoernle, 1. o., pp. xiv and ff., points out that Marktbf in some points agrees with the Western (i. o., inner) and in others with the eastern (i.6., outer) languages. Moreover, it in
Soo Dr. Grierson, Connue of India, 1901. Indemes of Language, London, 1901. The denomination of the various groupe has been slightly altered som to agree with the system adopted in the Linguistic Survey
