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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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OLD BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS
As for samghata=Sk. samkhyāta, we find a parallel instance in Pāli Maghadeva (Culla-Niddesa, p. 80) = Makhadeva, although here both the forms may be regarded as phonetic changes from Mahadeva, which is the usual Pali spelling.
No hypothesis regarding the character of the language should be built on the basis of the readings etinam (I. 9) and samkarakarako (I. 16). For it seems that etinam is but the engraver's mistake 1 for etisānam = Pāli etesanam, and samkara for samkhara, ef. patisamkharayati (I. 2).
One need not be surprised if the intended reading in Kharavela's inscription (I. 9) was bramhananam or brahmaṇānam, which is the same in pronunciation as the Pāli brāhmaṇānam. So far as the present inscribed surface of the rock goes, one has to read bamhananaṁ or bahmaṇānam.
Apart from the question of chronology, the following Brahmi inscriptions may be so arranged as to indicate a march of the official language of ancient India from a stage of old Magadhi towards Sanskrit through a Pali stage reached in the language of Ananda's Sanchi Gateway inscription of Satakarni's time and in that of the old Brahmi inscriptions:
I. Piprahwa Vase Inscription
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
II. Asoka's Rummindei Pillar Inscription
IV.
Iyam salila-nidhane Budhasa Bhagavate Sakiyanam sukitibhatinam sabhaginikanam saputadalanam.
III. Yasamata's Brick-tablet Inscription2
Devanampiyena Piyadasina lajina visativasdbhisitena atana agaca...silavigaḍabhīcā kālāpita silathabhe ca usapapite.
Jivaputaye rājabharyāye Bṛhāsvātimitadhitu-Yasamatāye kāritam.
Gotamimitra's Pillar Inscription3
...mitrasa-putrasa-raño-Visnumitrasadhitu-Īdragibhadaye dhātiye Gotamiye Mitraye danam thambho.
1. Etinam may be a genuine genitive plural form from etisa.
2. JRAS, 1912, the inscription edited by J. Ph. Vogel.
3. IHQ, Vol. II, No. 3, p. 442, the inscription edited by N. C. Majumdar.
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