TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

58 (Epileg.CPD I, s.v.tmesis). Numerous further comparisons that could be
added, are left out here for want of space and time. 314
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This section has indicated, I hope to have shown, that some of the
peculiarities noted for the various Vedic dialects reappear in the later
Prākṛts, and, in spite of the gap between Late Vedic and attested MIA, often
in the same areas as those of the preceding Vedic dialects. Now that the area
and the time-frame of the Vedic dialects are better known than before, the
various Middle Indian languages and dialects can be compared with the
earlier Vedic evidence much better than possible so far. It is also interesting
to note that forms which are found in the RV and have been compared
directly to the Pkt.s often have undergone a long development, visible in the
various Middle and Late Vedic dialects, until they reached the MIA stage; the
various levels of such developments and their geographical will be easier to
follow in the future.
§10. CONCLUSIONS:
§10.1. Dialects and centres of innovation
The preceding investigation will have established, it is hoped, a number
of results regarding the post-Ṛgvedic dialects. Among the more general
are:
* 1: There are regional differences in Vedic. This is the opinion of the
Vedic texts themselves,( see above §1), and this outcome has been
exemplified so frequently by the materials presented above (§5.1-3, §6)
that further discussion does not seem necessary here.
* 2: These regional differences are not static both in time and space
(geographical distribution) but are dynamic: certain developments
spread from an original (often small) area to the surrounding territories
314 Note, however, Ved. tād, found only a few times in RV and in ŚS,PS; it appears in the
Pkts., see O.v.H, Überblick, p.160 §374 and in Aśoka, Khalsi Inscr.; - some additions of
common vocabulary are: mahāśāla- , of Brahmins with a large house(hold), occurs first at:
ŚB 10.6.1.1; 10.3.3.1; 10.6.1.6; Up.: ChU 5.11.1/3; 6.4.5 ; Chāg.24:6/7;Vādh.B 4.89:31, cf.
Pāli mahāsāla DhN 12.2, etc.; - or: śiraḥ + pra.han, śiraṃ + vi.pat in late Br., Up.s, cf. with
Pāli muddhā + phal, see now author, Fs.W.Rau.
113