Kansvaho

Author(s): Rama Paniwada, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 43

xlii
KAMSAVAHO
Our author uses ahake (ii. 6) which is noted as a speciality of Magadhî dialect by Vararuci, and there are about half a dozen words like kalana (i. 14, 51), kumāla (iii. 29), galula (iv. 28), calana (iii. 34, 50), muhala (ii. 57) in which r is changed to I. It is true that kalana and kumala are not popular in dialects other than Magadhi ;39 but words like calana can occur in any other Prakrit dialect. In the absence of the Nom. Sing. of a-ending nouns in e and of the wholesale change of r to I and of s and s to ś, we cannot say that the dialect of our text is Magadhi. A word like ahake should be considered either as an intruder or a slip of the author.
A good deal has been written about Sauraseni, its characteristics and its relation with Mahārāṣṭrī.40 The use of Sauraseni is prominent among the Prakrit dialects used in the prose of the dramas. But the Ms. material from which we have to generalise the nature of Sauraseni is extremely unsatisfactory and the grammars are not quite exhaustive and they sometimes differ mutually. "In spite of all these difficulties" says PISCHEL, "it is however possible to get on the whole a fairly correct picture of S. In phonology the most characteristic feature is the change of ta into da and tha into dha (§ 203); in declension and conjugation the great variety of forms of
39 I am usually guided by the forms noted by PISCHEL.
40 PISCHEL: Grammatik etc. §§ 2, 12-15, 22 etc.; KoNow and LANMAN: Karpūramanjari, the section of Rajasekhara's Prakrit, pp. 199 etc.; R. SCHMIDT Elementarbuch der Sauraseni, Hannover 1924 M. GHOSH Mahārāṣṭri, a later phase of Sauraseni in the Journal of the Department of Letters, Vol. XXIII, Calcutta 1933; A. M. GHATAGE: Šauraseni Prakrit, the Journal of the University of Bombay, vol. III, part vi; S. K. CHATTERJI: The Study of New Indo-Aryan in the Journal of the Department of Letters, vol. XXIX, Calcutta 1936; A. M. GHATAGE: Māhārāṣṭri Language and Literature, the Journal of the University of Bombay, vol. IV, part vi; etc.