Morphological Evidence For Dialectal Variety In Jaina Maharastri

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Nalini Balbir

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N. BALBIR
ia bhūte (= Vr 7.23). bhūte vartamānād dhātoh pratyayasya ia ādeśaḥ syāt (= Bhāmaha's ct.) : āsīa, gehia, hasia, padhia (=) āsīt, agrahit, ahasat, apathat, ityādi. puruṣa-traya-rūpāni ekavacana-bahuvacana-rūpāņi ca boddhavyāni 54.
The last sentence may suggest that the same form is valid for all three persons and both numbers, 3. The derivation of the -ī(y)a pasts is a difficult question. Some of them are clearly based on an aorist stem (kāsīya, thāsīya, āsīya); others, like cintiya, seem to be built on the present stem ; a few others, like gacchiya, vocchīya, etc., are ambiguous 55.
C. Traces of Apabhramśa influence are not equally wide-spread in the corpus analysed here.
They are doubtful at the stage of verse-commentaries. For instance, the niryuktis provide evidence for shortening in the nominative singular of feminine -ā stems. Thus we meet citta-sabha in the Ohanijjutti (vs. 452, fourth gana v of an āryā) 56, or Mihila in the Uttarajjhāyā-nijjutti (vs. 396, second gana
) 57. While reading the AVN, I came across many such forms : in sixth gaņas , puccha (366, 492, 1310), padima (489), Aojjha (383), Campa (1284), Vinia (382), etc.; in sixth gaņas , , padima (516), Vijaya (520); in a sixth gaņa - puccha (348); in other metrical positions, padima (490), pavvajja (1298), māla (Bh 95), aņukampa (Bh 2), etc. Though it is probably less significant, a similar tendency can be observed in the case of -ī stems : thus devi (OhN 452, AVN 1288, sixth gaņa -- ), adavi (AvN 146, sixth gaña -), Bāņārasi (Uttn 391 58). All this corresponds to the normal situation in Apabhramśa 59. But one must be cautious since these endings mostly appear in enumerative verses, where there seems to be a certain amount of grammatical 'freedom, and since they are bound by metrical constraints 60.
On the other hand, however, after Jacobi 61, various editors of early
54. The Prākrita-Prakāśa... of Vararuchi... The first complete edition by E. B. COWELL. Reprint Delhi, 1977 (Oxford, 18951), p. 65, note 10 and p. IX about the "W" manuscript.
55. See ALSDORF's suggestions, loc. cit. 56. METTE, Pind'esanā, p. 179. 57. LEUMANN, WZKM 6 (1892), p. 43. 58. LEUMANN, ibidem, p. 42.
59. Pi $ 100, $ 374; G. V. TAGARE, Historical Grammar of Apabhramśa. Poona, 1948, $ 89.
60. For bare-stems in Digambara Prakrit, see K. OKUDA, Eine Digambara Dogmatik. Das fünfte Kapitel von Vattakeras Mülācāra... Wiesbaden, 1975, p. 30 ff.
61. Bhavisatta Kaha von Dhanavāla. Eine Jaina Legende in Apabhramśa. München, 1918, p. 58* ff. : * Vulgarismen ".