TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

The Ṛgvedic nom. pl. -āsaḥ 277 is found in Old Avestan as -ānhö, and in Mede
as -āha (as represented in the O. Pers. inscriptions: aniyāha bagāha). The
extension by -as is, therefore, an Indo-Ir. development (*-āsas) which had
(partially) affected some of the tribes but not all, notably not those of a later
wave of immigrants (e.g., Y. Avestan, O. Pers., Post-Ṛgvedic). While the
innovation -āsaḥ is found in the RV, the older form -āḥ is found exclusively in
post-RV texts (except for archaisms and quotations from the RV/mantra
language).
It is the later, mostly post-Ṛgvedic form (-āḥ), that has gained prominence in
all Prākṛts (-āḥ > ā), except for -āse in Pāli verses (see O.v.Hinüber,
Überblick, p.144 §312). This is a new formation in conjunction with the
Eastern nom. pl. -e. Note that it is not found in Aśoka inscriptions or in Pkt.,
as Lüders has shown (Kl. Schr., p.437), apparently with the exception of two
cases in a Western inscr. of Aśoka, that of Delhi Topra. 278 It is also
remarkable that -ase does not yet appear as a popular form of Eastern Indo-
Aryan in the "language of the Asuras," the famous exclamation he'lavo at ŚB
3.2.1.23 (ŚBK 4.2.1.18 hailo), which still retains the old voc. pl. -o (< -aḥ) in
both versions; this is a phrase which otherwise shows the Eastern
particularity of r > l, as well as that of -y- > -v-: 279 he 'lavo < he 'rayo, "hey,
you strangers/guys." 280 It may well be the case that -āse is a fairly late
development. 281 In this connection, it is interesting to note that AMg. -ao is
equally a new formation (-a + -o of the cons. stems; see O.v.Hinüber,
Überblick §312; voc.pl. Apabhraṃśa -aho < -a + bho, Überblick §322).
Thus the Madhyadeśa form is again accepted almost everywhere, except for
some remnants in a few Old Pāli verses. This case indicates that the process
of the spread of Madhyadeśa forms was a slow one. Apparently, it did not
reach the East (Pāli verses) until the last few centuries, B.C.
277
Cf. O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, p.144.
278
See M.A.Mehendale, Aśokan Inscriptions in India, Bombay 1948, p. 28 §53 IXb:
viyāpaṭase.
279
See O.V. Hinüber, Überblick §214: E. Aśoka inscr., in Pāli (partly), in AMg, Paiśācī.
280
Cf. ann. 2, 240; cf. P.Thieme, Der Fremdling im RV; in Vedic, cf. the JUB story 3.7.8, see
Fs. W. Rau, The case of the shattered head.
281
Cf. nom. sg.in Aśoka, A.Mg., and Mg. remnants in Pāli; see O.v. Hinüber, Überblick.,
p.127 §296; but pl. according to the pronoun te?, Überblick, p.161 §378 te. - Otherwise, one
may think that perhaps it was indeed the famous "first wave" of Indo-Aryan immigration
into the East which had perpetuated the spread of the Ṛgvedic usage -āsaḥ to the East,
where it remained in use, while the Kuru-Pañcāla form -āḥ gained prominence in the rest of
the Middle Indian dialects.
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