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WESTERN INFLUĚNCE ON THE MYSORE EDICTS OF ASOKA
15
(c) The cluster tm > tp in the Mysore versions under the influence of the standard western Prāksta as can be seen from the Girnar instances. Thus we have mahātpā (mahātmānah) in br, sd ; ātpă (ātman) and catpāro (catvārah) in G; but atva 36 and ata (ātman) in M, and ata and cature (catvarah) in $. The forms ata and cature in the north-western versions of Asoka are clearly due to the eastern influence.97 That the proper local treatment for the north-west was tv is shown by the Mānsehrā instance given above and by the later Kharoşthi documents. These documents also show that in later times tv > p under the influence of the standard western tp.38
(8) In morphology also the Mysore versions agree with the non-eastern dialect in certain respects as follows:
(a) The dat. sg. forms etāya and athāya end in ya and not -ye as in the east. In this case even the north-western versions have the borrowed forms etaye, taye, athaye etc., but G has etäya, tāya, athāya, etc. In the Niya Prākṣta the endings are both -e and -ya. But as BURROW observes the dative is rare except in the infinitives and that it had died out in the popular speech ($ 52, 355). In later inscriptions we have mostly the continuation of the borrowed -e, though -ya and -(y) a are found in two instances (MEHENDALE $ 529).
(b) The nom. sg. neut. forms vataviyart and sacaṁ have the non-eastern ending -a (m) and not the -e of the east. The eastern ending is of course seen in the other forms like phale etc. (For the explanation of eastern endings see below).
(c) In pronoun forms the inst. sg. of the first personal pronoun maya is north-western. The eastern forms as given in D, J versions are mamayā (and me). In later Kharoşthi we have maya
36. Instead of atva, BÜHLER reads atma. But cf. HULTZSCH p. 81, f.n. 3. 37. ata also occurs in K, the separate edicts, and the Pillar edicts.
38. In the Niya Praksta we have the treatment tm > tv or p (BURROW $ 44). In the Dhammapada we have tm > tv cf. ajātva < adhyatma, etc., BAILEY, BSOS. 11.498 Glossary. In the later Kharoşthi inscriptions we get four forms viz, atmuna-, atvana-, apana-, and ata- (MEHENDALE $ 528). Of these, at mana is clearly a Sanskritised form, and ata- is the continuation of the old borrowing from the east found in the S, M versions. Thus the proper north-western treatment (tv and p) is shown by the remaining two instances. That ata in S, M and the later Kharosthi versions cannot be regarded as due to assimilation of tv > t is shown by the fact that in the later Kharosthi inscriptions (MEHENDALE $524a) and in the Niya Prāksta (BURROW $43) tv is either preserved or assimilated to p and not to t, except in the absolutive suffix. The non-eastern treatments leading towards assimilation to p, and the eastern treatment leading towards assimilation to t can also be seen from the later Prākstas (PISCHEL $ 277).
Madhu Vidya/295
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