A note on the Language of the

Buddhist Dohci's
The late Dr. H. P. Sastr; was collecticn are written of Buddhist them with was mysti~-;ongs his notes. Hnd publish the The hrst to discover from Nepal a (Caryapadas) language as "Old and Dohas ad in which Bengali." Dr. to edit texts S. K.

these

characterised

by him

5=hatterji went deeper

into the philological

asp~~t;;Tth~;e'texts

and after

" careful study came to the conclusion that the Caryapadas only are written in what can be called "Old l3engali';~~-d-th;;15;;hii~''':cc;rdi~g-t~ him

.'.'p,:" sent

the

salTIe dialect

which is a kind

ofW~ster~(S":uras;ni) its -ijj~- passives

Apabhrarpsa

as. i!s .-U'- nominati~-;;~~it;-=-~h~~g~;;it;~es. agreement (The Origin and Development

<:nd its general amply indicate" I, p. 112).

in form withth~-lit~;":;Y~\Ve~t~;;.;

Ap;'bh;~;;i~
language,

0/

the Bengali

This dialect

according

'to him played

the same, role, as the

Brajabhakha did in later times, in relation to the eastern languages. He however admitted that though it is a 'Western dialect some Od l3engali idioms and words have crept into it. Dr. Shahidullah, however, in his admirable tried to establish that the language (Les Chanis Mystiques de Kiinha conclusion preservation QlclBengali 'palatal, because edition of the Dohas,

of the Dohas i3 an Eastern Apabhra!psa et Saraha, p. 55). He was led to this of the language he noticed the

in the 'phonology

of the palatal sa whjch i3 the. rTlost_i!'~':k'::d. characteristic of as well as of the 0<;1h6 dialects. In Sarvananda's commen(dated and

tary on Amaralto~a are found

1159 A.D.) the two sibilants, both dental and

confusion is aba corrupt due discovered in

their occasional of the Pales.

some of the inscriptions The text published number

1

by H. P. Sastr! was very

and the large

e.f mistakes

in it, it seem:> to me, were

to the fault of the

copyists. As the manuscript on which he baoed his edition is now lost Dr. Shahidull~h while .eediting the text had to depen'd only 0;" the Tibetan translation for making his emendations. These emendations are very valuable During palm-leaf discovered in making out the sense of the Dohus but do not heJp us of the exact fOrIlls of the words. in 1929 I came of Saraha. hitherto upon two incomplete mS. I The ms. Sarma other was of In the same unknown. Hemaraja and the

much in the determination manuscripts

my last stay in Nepal

of the Dohiiho~a

tw~ more incomplete, Dohiilto~cs N. S. 220 i.e.

is dated, contained

1100 A.D.

The Rajguru one of Saraha

also kind;~ou~h

t~ place at my disposal a ms. of his own collection. which

r
!

>

two co!"pl<;te Dohiilto~as,

2S0

A:'\OT

o:\'rHi~LAXGL\GE

OF THE nL"DDH1ST DOHM;;

1\ Tillopiida.

This ms. though a Ji.!!l,:-!<,~!_.!.han~l:e former belcngs to the 12th century A.D. The Dohal<o~a of Sarl!ha as contained in this ms. is thus a second "nd probably older ms. of the text published by H. P,

,,p 11.1 _

Siistri and reedit~d by Dr.,.Shahi.d. ullah.... In these texts there is clearly one sibilant and .!h~!LiIL!!!1ifQ.!.illJy 4."'t1.!i'1. ' In a number eases ill the Dohak,o~e of Saraha Or. Shahidullah found the palatal sibilant preserved. In the following list I will first men. tion, with reference tCIthe stanzas of Saraha's Dohak,o~a (the text a9 publish~d by Or. Shahidullah), the words as established by him and then their correct forms as found in the newly discovered mss. (but in 5, 6, 10 bese) - bese; 7. sunaha _ sunaha, sialahasettha - sat/ha; (in 58, 70, sattha); 27. saSl _ sasi, - pabesa, ubeSa - ubesa; 30. bisuddho _ bisuddha; 37. dose (Siistri's text - dose) - dose; 46. sai (5iistri's text - sail - sai; 65. desa desa; 66. bisa~ (Sastri's text, bisaya) - bisaa, (but see 69, 72,94, 103 whe.re it is bisaa); 68. animisa (Sastri's text animisa) animisa; 73. bisayasattibisayasatti;' 76. dosa (5iistri's text, dosa) - dosa. 86. desahi _ desahi; 92. bisariau (Sastri's text, bisamai) - bisaraiau; 96. k,u/isa - k,ulisa. 99. duriase~a (Siistri's text - duriiisesa) _ duriasesa. In all other case;; in the text as published by H. P. 5astri it is always the dental s which is used instead of s and ~ _ saa/asesa (61), sal<ai (54), saltk,ai (17J, saranta (66), sarisa (50, 78, 86), sarira (91), sal/attva (77), sombara (89), siri (56, 68), sisa (4), suaa (95), suk,l<a (100), sunna, suna (16, 72), sudda (48), suddha (l08), sunai (75), sunahu (57), sojjha, Bojjhu (53, 101), sos a (ID, 51, 93), sohai (85), sohia (40), pasu (23), pasa (87), baisi (2, 4), binasai (55), pdrisahu (57), pec;labesi (86, 88), bisarisa (86, 88); biBarisa (86, B8), bisuddha (72), bisama (27). Saraha, Fragment J, ase, darisana, sissa, paissai, paisai, bina;'oi, bhunasai, paisi, aise, bisahi;
3. hese sialaha; pabesa

"9.

are some regular uses of the dental s in~tead of the palatal . siriphala (2) sunna (8), sosa (14), pasa (23), and sijjhai (24), It therefore follows that there is nothing in the phonology of the dialect of the Dohas which would justify us in taking it to be an Easter~ Apabhramsa if we understand by it 'some dialect from wh~hBe-;;-g~li descended. Prof. ul Bloch is quite clear on this point in his Preface to the book of Or Sh~hidullah. According to him it may be called an Eastern ApabpiaJTlsa "si I'on ent<,;ndpar la qu'i1 se rencontre dans des textes orientaux et qu' en y decele des influences orientales," but it is r.ot so "si I'on veut y voir la base des langues orientales actuelles," It is however in the ~O!E.holoID:'.. the dialect that Dr. Shahidullah of has discovered a more accentuated Easlernf-~~;ure~ --7\ n~;-b~~ or-verbs h~v~=;;~ti-i~flexion in the 3r;r-pe;son plural Of the present indicative.- 0Mk ~ There are five example,s of it in the different Dohak,0~a8 Saraha - viphtl'fanti (43), parimuceanti (44); Kal}hu . bahaJTlti (2), bhumayanti (2), and Tillopii - bha,;lGnii (4), Dr. Shahidullah takes it lo be a disti.nct easter~ character of the language. According to him a-;"tii~ Old Bengali .al1d Oriya, -anip in Middle Afsamese', -en in mode,rn,Bengali a~athiJ.tl Maithili are aE ~d-fr;t1'l this -::~I;ereas Hindi~, Rajasthani -ai, Marathi .;a 'rati -e iQld Gujrati -a] would all go back to -ahl. ~~-;;'ca-;';~ howe~er-;~c';rd~- the pr~;~~~clboth the inflexions ahi and anti in the ApabhraIl1sa which he describe>3. The three works ~f Jin~,d~ttasit';i-;ritten in Jaina ApabhraJTlsa of the 11th century A.D. published in the Gaekwad's Oriental Series ccntain a fairly good numbe.r of verbs with -aJTltiinflexion for the 3rd person plural indicative present: I. hara,!lti (7), hurpii (19, 29, 31J, lirpti (213), dhararpti (21), k,ararpti (22), pac;larpti (31), vasarpti (35). II. tara,pti (7), hunti (7), laharpti (7), k,drirpti (27), I<ahirpti (31), (37), humti (31), havarpti (31), k,arirpti (32), hurpti lim;i (61), jhagac;lamti, dirpti, k,arirpti (61), hurpti (78),
th~rpti (78), piyarpti (80), havarpii (80). Ill. horpii (4), jarpt;' (18), k,ararpti (23). ~ In all other cases in these texts the inflexion is -ahi and in some cases -ahi which may be a mistake for the fOlmer. Therefore it will be wrong to suppose that -anti was characteristic eastern inflexion for the 3rd person plural present indicative. The forms in -anti, -arpti. in the Dohiis as well as in the Jaina ApabhraJTlsa may be explamed as l-'rakritisms remaining side by side with regular ApabhraJTlsa forms in -ah,. The inflexion asi for the 2nd person, singular indicative present has AA appeared to f)r. Shahidullah to be another eastern feature, though I haVe

Saraha Fragment 11. - barisante, disai, pdssai, disa, k,isa. Tillopiida - sU1)1)a, eplai, yea, bisohahu, bisahi, dosa, ubaese. These are sufficieTlt. t~__ __ s1'.o-,,~~~at...i~_!he_A~bhraIJlsa of these Buddhist f)ohiis the use of the sibilant was reg~larly -~~-~fi~ed ;';-;he dental. The confusionthat appears in th;t~-;t~;bii;h~d-by--j.::rp. Sastri betw~~nthe dental and palatal sibilants should be attributed to the !Jegligen~~_.<>f copYists.~~-ch -;;onf~;i-;;~--did the n~t--;~~ily~~ist;;;:th~older manuscripts.

not yet .been able t~. find any example of it in the Dohiis. Dr. ShahiduIlah thinks that the Old and Middle;Bengali and Middle Maithili -asi. and middle AS3amese and Eastern Hindi -as - all are derived from this asi; Panjabi,' Lhanda and Sindhi -e go back to -ohi which is found also in Old Hindi. But modern Bengali and cognate languages presuppose in Eastern Apabhrall\sa not only forms like ca/asi but also caii.i and - calahi (Chiltterji, H, p. 935). According to Hemacandra ' the Western, Apllbhrawsa al~o possessed both the inflexion.:J -as; and -ahi :' (as in pucchasiancl pucchahi). ' l.aQt\J~/l. . Anot~e~ point rem.ains to be discussed. It is the locative singull!!... , inflexion .~f the nouns ending in -a. As it occurs only in a few stanz"s quotes! byH~macandra and is absent in the Bhavisaitak,ahii and Nemif nathacarita Dr. Shahidullah is inclined to the opinion that it is a distinct've li." ~eature"of the Eastern Apabhrall\sa. The regular locative singular inflexion in \Vest~rn Apabhrall\sa for words in -a was according to \ I:' Hemacandra -e lind -iBut in the ApabhraIJlsa works of Jinadattasiiri we fin&a number ot examples in -hi: If. k,uppahi (13), k,alyiit;laputthihi (3 Besides the locative singular in -hi i3 !,\otvery frequent in the Dohils. The more regular forms there too are in -e and --;;. . Therefore the second person indicative present forms in =.!i... the third person indicative forms in -anti, and locative singular forms in -hi do n,ot appear to be any characteristic ft:ature of the Eastern ApabhraIJlh .and do not prove in any way the; eastern character of the language '~f th; .' .. Dohils. Such forms are as frequent in the Dohils as they are in the texts written in Western ApabhraIJlsa. The contention of Dr. Shahidullah, both from phonological and ~or.phol~gical ~oi~ts.of view, seems to be baseless. We ~re therefore stilI JustIfied m mamtammg that the language of the Buddhist Dohlis was a .. Western ApabhraIJlsa which was adopted for the composition of these \ Ea3tern texts sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries AD. \

n,