TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu

While the preceding examples have indicated the development of a
particular phonetic or grammatical feature and its subsequent diffusion to
/ther areas, the following feature is limited to the Kosalas, and to their
Yajurvedins at that; some Eastern peculiarities may be mentioned here in
passing. Renou has drawn attention to the fact that VSK and VSM differ in
their treatment of -cm-, -jm- (RV, ŚBM, etc.), which in VSK becomes -km-, -
gm- 190 , thus: avanegyam K: avanejyam M., or tanacmi TS 1.1.3.2 etc., but
tanakmi VSK. Contrast this with the Western development of -jm- > ym (in
KpS etc., see above). We must regard this as an early Middle Indian
influence on the Vedic corpus, an intermediate stage in the general change of
clusters involving palatals and nasals: jm > ym > Pāli/Pkt. mm, (cf. jñ > ññ,
ṇṇ). 191 Note the similar development in Caraka texts: -j- > -y-. 192
Must we understand the spellings of VSK as similar to Paiśācī spelling
(tenuis written for an intervocalic media in pronunciation), according to the
recent explanation of the Paiśācī orthography by O.v.Hinüber? 193 Thus, is
tanacmi pronounced [tanajmi] but written /tanakmi/? Such confusion was
possible by the 1st cent. B.C., when -g- had become [ ] but was written with
/y/k/g/ 194 and could therefore be confused with older [c] > [j] , which was
written /j/y/. In that case, one would have to think of a very early written text
for this Vedic school, which is unusual. So far, Vedic texts have been found in
written form no earlier than the beginning of the 11th century A.D. 195 .
However, as ŚBK has some non-Vedic, "classical" forms (see below, on
dugdhe §6.6), one could think of the Kāṇva dynasty in the last cent. B.C., and
compare this to the writing down of the Pāli canon in Ceylon at the same
time. 196
190
Renou, JA 1948, p.38: tanakmi VSK yunagmi VSK, tanacmi VSM yunajmi VSM; he
regards this as an imitation of RV forms in -km- etc., like vívakmi; cf. also Caland, ed.
ŚBK, p. 37: ŚBK jy: ŚBM gy in avanej/gyam.
191
See O.V. Hinüber, Überblick, §251; in inscriptions, j > y since the 2nd cent. B.C., see
§174.
192
See StII 8/9, p. 209.
193
Die Paiśācī und die Entstehung der sakischen Orthographie, in: Studien zum Jainismus
und Buddhismus, Gedenkschr. L.Alsdorf, Wiesbaden 1981, p. 121-127; cf. Überblick, §51,
98 sqq.
194
See O.v. Hinüber, Überblick, §174.
195
Preserved in the National Archives of Nepal, cf. Albīrūnī's note on the first Veda texts
written down shortly before his time (1030 A.D.) in Kashmir. Only the Upaniṣads
(Śaṅkara, etc.), are an exception, as they had been taken out of the Vedic corpus and
transmitted as texts of the Advaitins.
196
Note: Veyālīya, Vetālīya, Vetāliya, etc., in Jaina texts used as the name of a section in the
2nd Aṅga. Varāhamihira uses Vaitālīya as a synonym of Māgadhī (see Weber, Ind.Stud. 8,
69