TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

The strong occurrences in ŚB and JB lead us to expect that the subj. would
survive in the early Pkts. and in Pāli (based as it is on a W./S. language
comparable to JB with some older Eastern words and forms, comparable to
ŚB). However, all MIA languages present a much more advanced state of
affairs in the Aśoka inscriptions; remnants and new formations of this verbal
category are found only in certain inscriptions, and then (as expected) only in
Eastern ones: Sarnath huvāti, nikhipātha, see O.v.Hinüber, Überblick, p.172
§413.
However, the supposedly Western forms of Pāli as the representative of
Buddh. Middle Indian (forms like garahāsi) must be explained differently.
Thus the last flowering of this verbal category in ŚB must have been removed
from the early MIA of Aśoka, Pāli, and the other Pkt.s by a wide margin of
time, another confirmation, incidentally, of what has been noted above about
the respective dates of some late Vedic texts like BAU, and the early MIA
texts, and also of Pāṇini who still teaches the subj., though his language is
particularly conservative (see below, on -eṣma, §9.7).
§9.7 The Precative in -eṣ(ma)
The spread of the precative in -eṣ- , formed from roots in -ā is of particular
interest for the history of early Vedic dialects: The Ṛgvedic forms in -eyā-
(e.g. deyās-) are replaced in post-Ṛgvedic texts by those in -eṣ- (e.g. deṣ-).
Forms like deṣma from dā are typical Kuru-Pañcāla innovations which have
spread to all post Ṛgvedic -Mantra texts.) Their origin, however, can be
traced already in the RV itself (yeṣma, jeṣma) 297
Such forms are attested in:
______________________________________________________________
(RV) PS ŚS VS
KS MS TS
KSa
ŚB (pr. in acc. with verse ŚB 4.3.4.17)
some later Sūtra texts (Mantra)
_______________________________________________________________
The Vedic forms in -eṣma have their counterparts in the Prākṛts 298 as well: -
eṃha is attested in Mg., Śaur. - but not A.Mg! -. In Pāli, some forms (aṃhase,
-oṃhase), which are found exclusively in SE Asian MSS, may have
297 see K.Hoffmann, Aufs. 465-74.
298 See O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, p. 177.
109