Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s12.7

c12.s12.7

Epigraphical records of the 4th-3rd centuries B.C. bear out the occurrence of the situation as deduced from literary references—only some new developments had in the meanwhile taken place. The oldest Brāhmī inscriptions including of course those of Aśoka give us a sufficiently clear idea as to the linguistic conditions for Aryan India; Aśoka's inscriptions, giving the same texts in as many as three distinct local dialects have been aptly described as the first ‘Linguistic Survey of India’. In the Aśokan documents, we have: (i) a Prākṛit or Aryan speech of the North-West, as in the edicts at Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi. This is based on the Udicya dialect of the earlier period, and its phonetics even in the 3rd century B.C. shows that it had deviated the least from the Old Indo-Aryan norm, and it thus bears out the encomium of the earlier author of the Brāhmaṇas that speech here was *prajñāta-tarā*, more discerning. Northern and North-Western Punjab thus showed a great deal of conservatism in its language, even as late as the 3rd century B.C. We may even say that it was still in the Old Aryan stage (at least in its phonetics, retaining as it did a good many conjunct consonants, and the three sibilants *ś, ṣ, s*), while the speech of the East had deviated most. (ii) There is a Prākṛit of the East, found in Eastern inscriptions of Aśoka and elsewhere. This form of Indo-Aryan speech has deviated exceedingly from Old Indo-Aryan norm, and besides it shows phonetic peculiarities (e.g. use of only *l* and no *r*) and some forms (e.g. *-e* from *-aḥ* rather than *-o* in the case of masculine nouns ending in *-a*) which are not found in the other dialect areas. It is exceedingly likely that this Prākṛit of the East was the language of Aśoka's court at Pāṭaliputra, and the edicts of Aśoka were first written at Pāṭaliputra in this dialect, and sent to the provinces for publication by being engraved on stone at prominent places. Where the local dialect differed so appreciably from this court speech as to make the latter not easy to follow locally, as for example in the North-West (Mansehra and Shahbazgarhi) and in the South-West (Girnār), the edicts were rendered in the local dialect; but this rendering was not very careful, but rather haphazard as a good many forms and expressions from the court dialect were allowed to find a place in the versions in the North-western and South-western dialects. Where the local dialect did not differ so much as to make the Prācya court dialect unintelligible, it would appear that the latter was employed, as much as in the home districts in Eastern India. Thus in Rajputana, in Western U. P., in North-western U. P. (Kalsi), and in Central U. P. (Allahabad), the Eastern dialect is employed as much as in Eastern U. P., Benares (Sarnath) and Bihar (Lauriya, Rummindei, Barabar caves). A few special characteristics may occasionally be noted, e.g., at Kalsi; the exact reason for this is not known. It would appear that the use of Eastern Prākrit, the Court dialect of Bihar and Benares, was like that of the use of Hindi (a form of Western Hindi of Western U. P.) in Eastern U. P. and Bihar. Generally it has been the language of the Midland that has prevailed in the East, but in the Aśoka inscriptions, owing to the political importance of Magadha as the home province of the empire, for the first and last time we have an Eastern speech established as the official language in the Midland.