TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

Madhyadeśa (Taitt.) innovations (only found in educated, Brahmanical
OIA). 285
§9.4 Gen. fem. in -ai
The gen. fem. in -ai, known from a number of Vedic texts, can be found in its
Middle Ind. equivalent 286 in the oblique form of the -ā stems: Māharāṣṭrī -āe
(also ai, āa,), Pkt. -āe (also- ai,-e), 287 Aśoka -āya, (NW and E -āye) 288 , Pāli -
āya;
If one compares this with the evidence from the Vedic texts, it is obvious that
the geographical location of the following Vedic schools and the Pkt. dialects
agree. Śaurasenī, with -āe, agrees with the Taitt./Kauṣ. form -ai, and Māh. -
āe (also -āi, -e) agrees with Jaim. -ai. (Note, however, that Māh. also has -ai
and -āa, which are regarded as metrical variants only; see O.v.Hinüber,
Überblick § 80).
It seems that the Madhyadeśa innovation (TS, etc. -ai) subsequently spread
to all nooks and corners of the subcontinent where IA was spoken. Or, in
other words, the Middle Indic innovation is first seen in the Madhyadeśa texts
like TS, etc., and then is accepted into other Vedic dialects due to the prestige
of the (Kuru-) Pañcāla Brāhmaṇical language. Note as well that the form
disappears from Epic (and Class.) Skt. which, in this case, continues the
Western Vedic dialects.
§9.5 The preterite
It has been mentioned above (§5.2) that the development of the tenses in late
Vedic and early MIA foreshadows a complete restructuring of the tense
system in MIA. 289
285 Note that there still remains a remnant case of -ebhiḥ in KapBr. = TB 3.12.3.3, a text
surviving as a fragment only; see Raghu Vira, ed. KpS, p.XIX (repr.), however this is in a
puronuvākya.
286 See Bloch/Master, Indo Aryan, p.135.
287 See O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, p.150 §334; §80
288 See also O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, § 299
289 In this section, I again quote from my article on the origin of the frame story, in the Fs.
U. Schneider.
105