TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

AB, i.e. AB 6-8, and BaudhŚS, perhaps also by PB if the text indeed got
its final redaction in the East.
Innovations:
tanacmi > tanakmi, etc. ; Sandhi -e/o a- > -a a (Śākalya); Sandhi -o/au V-
: various innovations in Prācya dial.; late forms of pronouns: nom.
vayām, āvām (part of rācya area); late forms of śīrṣan- made from śiras-
(part of the area); diffusion of the narrative perfect; renewed use of
subjunctive; hypercharacterised subj.; renewed use of inf.-tavai; late
forms of duh : dugdhe (part of the Prācya area); renewed use of u in
collocations; sa in sentence initial position; punarmṛtyu- ; renewed use of
pāpa-.
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The Kosala land, occupied by the Kāṇvas, Baudhāyanīyas, and
Śāṇḍilyas, however,is in many ways a transitional area (usually with a
strong Western influence); the South (E.Rajasthan, N.Madhya Pradesh,
i.e. Baghelkhand, Malva), occupied by the Jaiminīyas, equally is a
transitional area between (Eastern) Central and Western influences.
Each one of these centres is characterised by a number of developments
which either originated there at a certain stage of the development of the
Vedic language, or which spread from there in subsequent levels of
Vedic. A case can be made, and has been made above, for defining each
of these centres and their immediately surrounding territory as dialect
areas, i.e. the Kuru, Pañcāla, and Eastern (Prācya) dialects, as well as the
transitional dialects of the South and of Kosala.
The last two areas are somewhat problematic as many developments
that took place there also occur in the Eastern area (ŚB, AB 6-8), and
there is no certainty at this moment which part, for example, of JB is
older or younger than a certain part of ŚB, or BŚS, or VādhB. If these
texts are more or less contemporary, one may posit a late Vedic Eastern
Central/Southern/Eastern dialect grouping which stands opposed to the
earlier Kuru-Pāñcāla area. Much more research into the relative
chronology of the texts involved is necessary in order to explore this
problem.
The earliest form of post-RV Sanskrit, i.e. the Kuru dialect, is
characterised by a number of phonetical and flexional developments
which distinguish the earlier Mantra and YV Saṃhitā period from the
later Saṃhitā (TS) and Brāhmaṇa (KB, etc.) levels. The Kuru form of
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