Yet, there is also Asko Parpola's observation (in his papers on the unity of Mimamsa) that sutras become progressively shorter as a feature of reuse practices on the part of later authors. The Srautasutras already involve shortening in principle, by eliminating most of the arthavada passages etc., a transition from the Brahmanas to the later sutra literature. The later a text, the shorter. So, this seems definitional to the enterprise itself.

On the topic see also:

Konrad Klaus, "Zu den buddhistischen literarischen Fachbegriffen sutta und suttanta." In: From Turfan to Ajanta. Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday. Ed. by Eli Franco and Monika Zin. 2 vols. Lumbini 2010. Vol.1, p. 519-532, which draws attention to the fact that the Śrautasūtras and other Brahmanical works are not at all concerned with reaching a maximum economy of expression.

Best,

Philipp

__________________________

PD Dr. Philipp A. Maas

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Research Associate)
Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften

Universität Leipzig

___________________________

https://spp1448.academia.edu/PhilippMaas

Am Di., 11. Mai 2021 um 18:47 Uhr schrieb Rupert Gethin via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>:

Could someone confirm the wider Prakrit evidence?

Tim commented with reference to the Pali commentarial explanation of sutta as suvutta:

But this is not really much to support sutta < sūkta, since the regular Pāli form parallel to sūkta includes the glide -v-, as Skt ukta ~ Pāli vutta and similarly in other MIA languages, which all seem to preserve the initial v- of the verbal root *vac- (Pischel §337), despite the vowel change a > u before a labial (§104).

But unless I am misreading something here, Pischel (§337) notes that Jaina Śaurasenī, Śaurasenī and Māgadhī all have utta < ukta

And Turner’s A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages includes Prakrit sutta under sūkta:

13545 sūktá ʻ well recited ʼ RV., ʻ eloquent ʼ MatsyaP. [su -- 2, uktá -- ]
Pk. sutta -- ʻ handsomely said ʼ; OG. sūta ʻ speaking properly ʼ.

https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/soas_query.py?page=780

Rupert

--

Rupert Gethin
Professor of Buddhist Studies

University of Bristol
Department of Religion and Theology
3 Woodland Road
Bristol BS8 1TB, UK

Email: Rupert.Gethin@bristol.ac.uk

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