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INTRODUCTION
77
nātha tell us that Bählika bbāşā is to be attributed to northerners ( udīcyānām ) in a play. Herein probably lies some clue that this language was current pot only in Balkh but in a considerable part of northern India 38 including the Punjab.
Amy, Dākşiņātyā and Bābliki thus being denied the status of a bhāṣā in true sense there remain five out of eight: i) Mahārāştri; ii) Sauraseni; iii) Prācyā; iv ) Avanti, and v) Māgadhi, according to Mk.
(c) The position of Mahārāştrī Prākrit. 30. There has been a great controversy among scholars as to the place of M37 among Pkt dialects. Dr. M. M. Ghosh holds that M represented not the language of Mahārāştra contemporaneous with S, but rather it was just a later forin of Ś after the final loss of single stops, and the reduction of intervocal single aspirates to h had taken place in it.68 Dr. S. K. CHATTERJI seems to corroborate this view.88 In support of his view Dr. Ghosh gives the following reasons : (a) M as a MIA dialect came to be recognised
very late ( c. 600 A. C. ) (i) The chapter XII of PPK (c. 600 a. C.) in
36. Another word which has striking resemblance with the word bāhlāka is bāhīka – the people of Punjab ( see Apte's Skt. Eng. Dic, p. 391 ).
37. The word which should have been correctly Mābārāştri is invariably written as Mahārāştri in Ps. In some other Pkt grammars the correct form is also used. The short a here appears to be meant for easy pronunciation.
38. JDI, Vol XXIII, 1933, pp 1-24. 39. Indo-Aryan and Hindi, p. 91.
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