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The Stage of Development of the Prākrit of
Bhāsas Dramas and his age*
– V. Lesny
T. Ganapati Šāstrī, the worthy editor of the newly discovered dramas of Bhāsa, places the composer of these dramas latest in the 4th century B.C.' In the notice of the first two dramas A.A. Macdonell rightly observed that such a high age for the poet appeared doubtful to him.? L. Suali is indeed inclined to follow the Indian editor, 3 but in his work Zur Furhstucke des indischen theaters Stenkonow has placed Bhāsa in the last quarter of the 2nd century A.D. In the present paper, which is a brief synopsis of my previous treatise, 5 written in Czech, attempts have been made to solve the problem of the date of composition of the dramas purely from the standpoint of linguistic features. As it becomes clear from the following Bhāsas Prākrit which represents a stage of development, is younger than that represented by the Präkrit of Asvaghosa but earlier than that, which is reflected in the Prakrit of Kälidāsa. In the Prākrit of Ašvaghoșa® we do not find any where the elision of the consonants, but contarily in Bhāsas Prakrit the consonants k,g,c,j, t, d,p, b, v and y are elided between vowels, though not so frequently as, for example, in the Prākrit of Kālidas (comp. Pischel, gramm. 186). The old Indian kis elided : amudaa (amriaka/Pratij. 57, Avimāraa (Avimāraka) Avim. 19, ahia (adhika) Bāl. 35, aasa (ākāśa) Avim. 76. uvaāra (upakāra) Abhiş 13, kadua (kațuka) Svapnav. 36, ghodaa (ghotaka) Pañe. 22, dāriā (dārika) Avim. 14, dālaa (äälaa (dāraka) Bāl. 9, modaa (modaka) Svapnav. 29. Pratij. 4r, 46,
Translated from original German by S.N. Ghosal. The Paper was published in the Journal of the Oriental Institute Volume XIII, 1963-64, Edited by B.J. Sandesara, Oriental Institute, Baroda
TAG W311 37a
- Faltto, 2002 C
115
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