The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age c6.12

c6.12

The second half line has a syllable too much, but the Pkt verb *otarissati* would exactly suit the metre and was no doubt the word used originally, as *dBh* (an old MS of 1407) shows by reading *Bhagavān vatariṣyati*, where *n* and *va* are separate letters. Many two-syllabled equivalents for *bhagavān* were available to suit the metre. Again *eVā* has for the first half of a line, *sapta varṇāṇi Devadharmā* ², where *varṇāṇi* is obviously a misreading of *varṣāṇi*, and there is a syllable too much; but the Pkt form *varṣā* or *vassā* satisfies the metre. To one composing in Skt *samāḥ* would have avoided all difficulty. Similarly *Mt* has the first half of a line, *aṣṭāviṃśati tathā varṣā* with a syllable too much ³, but the Pkt *aṭṭhāvisam* would rectify the metre; whereas one composing in Skt could have written simply *aṣṭāviṃśati-varṣāṇi*, which is indeed the general reading of the *Mt* now. This instance may give us an insight into the process of Sanskritization, if, as the *Mt* reading suggests, the original Pkt was *aṭṭhāvisam tathā vassā*.