Paishaacika Sanskrit?

[Ferenc Ruzsa]

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Gansten
>The text in question is a naa.diigrantha called Dhruvanaa.dii. It is
>definitely in Sanskrit (of sorts), not Prakrit, and of South Indian origin.
>I haven't the text with me at the moment, but I am working on another text
>very similar in style: Gurunaa.dii. Among the typical grammatical errors,
>the following may be mentioned:
>        - irregular case endings and compound forms, such as 'karme' for
>'karma.ni', or 'pitaa-vipat' for 'pit.r-vipat'
>        - irregular (I think) words such as 'bhraatrii' for 'sister'
>        - excessive and superfluous use of the endings -vat and (more
>rarely) -mat, in words such as 'bhaagya-vihiina-vaan'
>        - erroneous gender inflections, such as 'sukhii' for 'sukhinii' or
>-vaan for -vatii.


Dear Martin,

the irregularities you quote do seem to be prakritisms. All of them (with
the exception of bhrAtrI) are mentioned in Franklin Edgerton's classic
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Vol. I: Grammar.

Yours,
Ferenc
--------------------------------------------------------
Ferenc Ruzsa
assistant professor of metaphysics
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
e-mail: f_ruzsa at isis.elte.hu