A History of Sanskrit Literature c7.s4.4

c7.s4.4

Apart from conclusions drawn from odd forms in the Vedic literature, our first real knowledge of the Prākrits is derived from the inscriptions of Açoka,¹ from which can be deduced with certainty the existence of three dialects,² that of the east, used in the capital and intended to be the lingua franca of the Empire, that of the north-west, and that of the west. Of these the north-west preserves the most ancient aspect, for it retains the *r* element of the *r̥* vowel and *r* in consonantal groups, while the western dialect has *a* for *r̥* and assimilates, as in *mago* for *mr̥gas*, *a(t)tha* for *artha*, and the eastern dialect has *i* or *u* for *r̥* as well as *a*, and assimilates with cerebralization, as in *a(ṭ)ṭha* for *artha*, *va(ḍ)ḍhita* for *vardhita*, while in *kaṭa* or *kiṭa* for *kr̥ta* it shows cerebralization, suggesting an eastern origin for Sanskrit words with unusual cerebralization. The north-west dialect again preserves all three sibilants, though with departures from the norm due to assimilation, as in *çaçana* for *çāsana*, or dissimilation, as in *suçruṣa* for *çuçrūṣā*; the eastern has *s* and so also the western, but in this case there are traces that the distinction longer prevailed, since *rç* in such a word as *darçana* seems to have been transformed to *darṣana*, in which condition it cerebralized the *n*, before assimilating *rṣ* to *ss*.³ The authors of the Bhaṭṭiprōḷu inscriptions in South-east India, seemingly colonists from the west, had a sound intermediate between *ç* and *ṣ* indicating the manner of the change. The north-west and the west again agree against the east in assimilating *ty* to *cc* and *kṣ* to *cch*, against the representation of *ty* as *tiy* and the assimilation to *kkh*; the east again is marked by the use of *e* for primitive *az* as against *o*, and by its rejection of *r* in favour of *l*. This eastern dialect may fairly be regarded as a forerunner of the Ardhamāgadhī of the grammatical tradition, though that language has been largely affected by western influences in its later form. An inscription in a cave on the Rāmgarh hill, probably of the second century B. C., reveals to us the precursor of the later Māgadhī, since it shows its characteristics, *e* for *o*, *l* for *r*, *kkh* for *kṣ*, and *ç* for *s*.