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The Word Mahaņa in Prakrit
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Foot-notes and references : Hemacandca in his Prākrit grammar II. 74 admits as a feature of Prāşı it in general and not exclusively of Ardha-Māgadhi. kvacit mbh'opi dr'syate: bambhano. bambhacera, simbho, etc. But Pischel intends to restrict it to Amg, and JM, But JM is nothing but Mah. as it is influenced by the Amg. dialect. In face Mah. the principal Pkt. of Hemacandra is immensely influenced by Amg. As such it is remarkably different from the Māh. Prākrit: which is presented by the eam tern Pkt. grammarians. Vide Pischel, Grammatik, sections 250, 267. But it may be pointed out that Hem. has considered the change of mh into mbh as a feature of Ap. as well, See Pkt. grammar. IV. 412. Hem. Pkt. gr. II. 74. Amg. JM māhana mit Weber, E. Müller, Jacobi, Leumann, S. Goldschmidt, Ascoli Hoernle = brāhmara zu setzen, ist sprachlich unmöglicb. Amg. braught fast auschliesslich mābana ....... Ich ziehe das Wort zu Skt makha (opfer), makha (zum Opfer gehörig) setzte es also="mākhana = "opfer-meister". Pischel Gk.250. Trans. Ap g. Jm. māhana is to be equated with brāhmana acc. to Weber, E. Müller, Jacobi, Leumann, S. Goldschmidt, Ascoli, Hoernle, but philologically this is impossible. Amg. uses mähana almost exclusively. I connect this word with makha (sacrifice), mākha (belonging to the sacrifice) and equate it with *mākhana the priest of the sacrifice. This has also been noted by Pischel, who obseves : Hinter Nasalvokalen karn k zu gh, hinter Nasalen zur Aspirata der entsprechenden classe des Nasals werden, GK, Sec. 267. Trans. After nasal vowels h can become gh but after nasals (i.c. class-nasals) it can be the aspirates (i. e. sonant aspirates) of the correspon. ding classes, The conjunct-consonant hm by metathesis may be changed into mh. This may remain without modification whatsoever in Präkrit - in fact in all its stages. This form ammik < amhi < anche <asme) has given rise to the word āmi a form of the nom. sg. of the first pers. in the New Indo-Aryan speech Bengali. The Bengali form also indicates that mh was showing the trend of being transformed into mm, which in Bengali become reduced to a single m with concomitant lengthening of the preceding vowel. The anunāsika does not make position i e. it does not make a short syllable long but the anunāsika can do it. In Pkt. b mostly appears as v although the former is admitted in Ap, the satra of Hemacandra is bo vaḥ I. 237. Pischel states that the nasalized va develops into ma in Apabbrachsa. We think that va which shows the nasal element as transcribed upon the vowel instead upon the consonant in fact points to the same very phenomenon, which Pischel describes. In fact the nasalization stands practically upon the vocalic element, which retains the nasal tone till the continuity of the pronunciation of the vowel. Hence no matter whether the mark of nasalization be placed upon the consonant or the vowel in transcription. Vide Piscbel sec. 261. Pischel suggests the change of va into ma as a feature of Ap. on the authority of certain examples, which he obtains from the grammar of Hemacandra. But there does not occur any specific rule for this. But this characteristic which Pischel ascribes to Ap. occasionally appears in the principal dialect of Prākit as in others.
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