The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c9.s3.11

c9.s3.11

In other cases the forms of this Prākṛit are clearly older than those of the grammarians’ Çaurasenī. As in the other Prākṛits of the drama, there is no softening or omission of intervocalic consonants, and no cerebralization of *n*. Further, initial *y* is kept, not reduced to *j*; the interjection *ai* in licu of *aï* is supported by the language of the Girnār and Udayagiri inscriptions; in *nirussāsam* we have an older form than *ūsasida* of Çaurasenī; *iñ* and *ny* give *ññ*, not the later *ṇṇ*; *dy* gives *yy* (written *y*) for *jj*; *tuvaṃ* and *tava* are both manifestly older than the forms *tumaṃ* and *tuha*, while *karotha* is a remarkable example of the preservation of the old strong base. Old also is the preservation of the long vowel in *bhavāṃ*. In *adaṇḍāraho* and the dubious *arhessi* we have two variants on the rule of Çaurasenī, which has *i* as the epenthetic vowel in *arh*, but this merely illustrates the uncertainty of these epentheses; *duguṇa* in lieu of *diuṇa* is not older, but a variant mode of treating *dviguṇa*, and there is no special difficulty in holding that *dāṇi* and *idāṇi* are forms which were originally doublets of *dāṇim* and *idāṇim* in Ṣaurasenī, and later were superseded. From other Prākrit passages, presumably in the same Old Ṣaurasenī, we obtain old forms like *vayam*, we, and *tumhākam* in lieu of *tumhāṇam*; *edisa* for *erisa* or *īdisa*; *dissati* for *disadi*; *gahitam* for *gahidam*; *khu* is kept after short vowels in lieu of being doubled; a long vowel is kept before *tti* and such forms as *mhi*. The future in *gamissāma* is probably old, while *nikkhanta* and *bambhaṇa* admit of this explanation against the later *nikkanta* and *bamhaṇa*.