Indian Antiquary Vol 43

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 63

APRIL, 1914.] NOTES ON GRAMMAR OF THE OLD WESTERN RAJASTHANI
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$7. Old Western Rajasthani has both a long and a short e, as Apabhrapça and Gujarati and Marwari. As in writing no distinction is made between é and, I shall transliterate both by e, save in a few particular cases, where it is important to know whether e is long or short. Generally e is long in tatsamas and short in tadbhavas, but there are many exceptions to this rule as shown by Old Western Rajasthani poetry as well as by the evidence of the modern dialects. Cf. the list of words containing a short e given by Sir George Grierson, p. 344 of L.S.I., Vol. ix, Part ii. In Old Western Rijasthani poetry e in one and the same word may be accounted short or long only to suit the exigencies of prosody. Thus in P. we find : jéha (100), téha (25,100), jé (21), té (69), jana (270) and jöha (25), ha (23, 38, 59), j(100), (100) jan ( 62 ).
Apabhramça e undergoes the following changes in Old Western Rajasthani :
(1) e is changed to i. This process had already begun in the Apabhramça stage, but was chiefly restricted to the case of terminal e (Cf. Pischel, $ 85), Ex.:
amhi (see $ 84) < Ap.amhe <Skt. asme (vayam), ima, keima, jima, tima (see $ 98, (3))-Ap. eva, keña, jeva, teña, (Pischel, $ 261), karijyo (Bh. 44) <Ap. *karejjahu (see $ 120), karivai (Kal. 5) (see $134) <Ap. karevvai <Skt. *kareyyakam, dii (Rp. 13) Ap. dei <Skt. * dayadi (-dadati), lii (Âdi. 11) Ap. lei Skt. *layati (lati), bi (see $ 80) < Ap.be <Skt. dve, hoije (Kal. 42) < Ap. * hoejjahi (see § 120).
In Gujarati i is further weakened to a, ex. : karajo, karavū, or brought back to e, ex. : ēma, kēma, amhê, bě. It is therefore probable that in some of the cases, in which Old Western Rajasthani has i for Apabhramça and Gujarati e, the former vowel stands simply to indicate ě. In Old Western Rajasthani poetry, original e is often preserved, mostly when a long mátra is required. Thus : karé (P. 250, 255) for kari (see $ 119) Ap. kari, karē (Pischel, $ 461), karévu (P. 96) for karivu (see $ 134), bé for bi, éma for ima, etc.
(2) e is changed to i. This was already the case in Apabhraca, as is evidenced by the two examples : vind Skt. veni and Tiha Skt. lekha, cited by Hemacandra, sutra iv, 329 of his Prakrit grammar. In Old Western Rajasthini i appears to be often written for é, in the same way as i is written for ē. --Thus: vale (Adi C.) for vali, (Up.) for-i, an emphatic particle (see $ 104). Similarly in poetry we find ima, kima, for éma, kéma <ima, kima, jiha, tiha for jeha, teha, etc. In the following prose-passage a form with i is used by the side of a form with ê, which clearly means that the two vowels are easily interchangeable : janai prakäral koi grhastha pidá na pámai, ténat prakáral....(Dac. i, 4). "In which way no householder suffers, in that way...."Cf. the common interchange of i and 6 in Northern colloquial Gujarati (L. S.I., Vol. ix, Part ii, p. 329).
(3) Initial e is dropped. Ex.: havai (VI. 18, P. 590, <ehavai (see $ 94, (3) ), hivada (Crâ.) <havadă <ehavada (see $ 94, (4)).
$8. The case of o is very similar to that of e. Though Modern Gujarati and Marwari do not possess a short o, yet Old Western Rijasthini possessed it much in the sanie way as Apabhraipça. Take the following examples from P. : kõ (171), jo (138), jõi (125), jõgi (131), tumho (465). Examples of Apabbrapça o having becomo u in Old Western Rajasth ini are:
hui (see § 113) <Ap. hoi <Skt. bhavati, hutaï (see ibid.) < Ap. hontau<Skt. bhavantakah.