The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age c6.35

c6.35

Most common is the use of numerals with the Pkt freedom from case-terminations, as well as only half Sanskritized, such as—*aṣṭāśīti* and *aṣṭāsīti*⁷, and *viṃśati* often both in the text and in the notes. Some of these instances might be due to the carelessness of copyists in omitting visarga or anusvāra, but that does not account for all such peculiarities, since they are found in carefully written MSS and are sometimes obligatory for the sake of the metre. Thus the Vā and Bḍ read as the last half line of a śloka, *aṣṭāviṃśati Maithilāḥ*⁸, and this was no doubt the original reading because *fyMt* have it also; but the Mt has generally altered *viṃśati* to *viṃśās* (or *°śat* or *°śa*) *tu*. The Skt form *viṃśatir* would violate the metre, and the Mt has avoided the difficulty of Sanskritization by substituting *tu* for the final syllable. This is the converse of the first irregularity noticed above (p. 78), and many similar instances of *tu* substituted for a final *ti* will be found in the notes.