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INTRODUCTION.
cxix many features common to Prakrits, as a whole, such as the loss of vowels ? and lr and of the dipthongs ai and au; general tendency towards changing the intervocalic consonants; reduction of the three sibilants to one; the reduction of the nasals; and the tendency to assimilate the conjunct when it is not simplified by anaptyxis. Words like metta, vihūnci, uuddha etc. may be found in almost all dialects. With respect to vowel changes and the consequent forms of words like idąhī, isi, orālija, ohi, dosa, niség jā, pagada, vasako (bho - in Ardha-Māgadhi), vouuvio, samvudo etc., they are a common property with AMg, of the S'vetāmbara canon; some of them are found in Jaina Māhārāstrī of the S'vetāmbara post-canonical literature, only because JM, inherits many features of AMg. Forms like pagada, pudhatta etc. smack of S'auraseni.
• The treatment accorded to intervocalic' consonants, especially stops, is of a very uncertain character; the general tendency is towards .softening of retention, a phenomenon quite usual in the early text of the AMg. canon and in. S'aurasení;. in Bhāsa's Sauraseni retention or softening of intervocalic consonants is still facultative, while in that of Kālidāsa the tendency is towards omission. It must be remembered that the S'vetāmbara canon has been, in later days, subjected to a strong Māhārāstrī infuence, because, since the days of Valabhi redaction, 980 years after Mahāvīra," the canon came to be shaped, nourished, nurtured, copied and studied, in western India, especially, in Gujarat and Kathiawar. Still words like ainega, udahī, logāloge, vibhāga etc. can be seen on any page of the canonical texts, and they indicate the basio non-Māhārāstrī element of AMg. The softening of k to g is merely, an extension of the S'aurasens phenomenon, generalised by grammarians, of softening t and th to d and dls. The retention of g is quite normal in AMg. of the canon. The retention of c and j exhibit a strong contrast with normal Mābārāstrī. The softening of t, which is almost universally taken recourse to in Pravacanasára is peculiarly Saurasenī and extended by grammarians to Māgadhi and other dialects; as a result of this the Present 3rd p. sg. termination is necessarily di, which, according to critical editors, is i in AMg. texts, though some editors of the orthodox school would preserve ti. The treatment accorded to dental pasal in Pravacanasāra is worthy of note: it is universally, cerebralised whether, initial, medial or conjunct; and this is in agreement with $ senī. Turning to Prakrit grammarians on this point, Vararuci, wants
bational cerebralisation, while Hemacandra says that dental may be i f initial. Coming to the practice in AMg., the MSS. are never in na k ; but critical scholars, from Weber to Vaidya,have created a is ismlantial convention of retaining a dental at the beginning of a word and of Shanging it to cerebral elsewhere. Exception is, however, made in the case of ham. With regard to conjunct an or nn, Dr. Jacobi's rule is that nn should be
f there is n in the Sk. original, otherwise nn; but one must say that
1. Weber. Uber ein Fragment der Bhagavati, Berlin, 1866-7; Dr. Vaidya: his editions of
Nirayāvaliyão, Antagadadasão etc., Vivāgasuya and Paesihahanaya eto. Poona, 2 Leumann retains forms like ninam, no etc., see his Das Aupapasha-sūtra, sections 138-3,
* 137; Dr. Vaidya: A Manual of Ang. Grammar, pp. 21-2. 3 Dr. Jacobi: Ayoranga stolta, PTS. London 1882, p.ay.
