The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c9.s3.4

c9.s3.4

The Duṣṭa’s speech in three important points is similar to the Māgadhī of the Prākrit grammarians; it substitutes *l* for *r*; reduces all three sibilants to *ç*; and has *e* in the nominative singular of masculine nouns in *a*. But it ignores the rules of the grammarians in certain matters; hard letters are not softened (e.g. *bhoti*), nor soft consonants elided (e.g. *komudagandha*), when intervocalic. There is no tendency to cerebralize *n*, and in *kālanā* the dental replaces the cerebral. Fuller forms of consonants remain in *haṅgho* (*haṅho*) and *bambhaṇa* (*bamhaṇa*). The later forms of development of consonantal combinations are unknown; thus for *rj* we have *jj*, not *yy*, as in *ajja*; *cch* remains in lieu of becoming *çc*; *kṣ* becomes *kkh*, not *sk* or *hk*; *ṣṭ* and *ṣṭh* give *ṭṭh*, not *st*. In *kiçca* we have an older form than *kīça*, in *ahakaṃ* than *ahake*, *hake*, *hage*. In practically all these details we must see an earlier stage of what becomes Māgadhī in the grammarians. With it may be compared the metrical inscription of the Jogīmārā cave on the Rāmgarh hill which belongs to the period of Açoka.