Patna Dharmapada

Studies - 34
Changes in word form
There are many changes that take place in the forms of words in order to meet the
requirements of the metre. Below an attempt has been made to collect all the instances of
this phenonema that I have noticed. Some forms are doubtful because of a lack of
evidence, and I have tried to err on the side of caution.
long ī at the end of a word (14 instances [36]): 6
ratī 60c, 211b
munī 127d
īva 156b
gatī 211a
sugatī 213d
khāntī 239a
ayiragarahī 302c
vaṭṭhī 351b, 352b, 353b, 354b, 355b, 356b
long ī medially (13 instances [14]):
satīmā 9d
bitīyatā, 11b
satīmato, 28a, 78a
paṭīlābho 82c, 334c
ahirīkena 164a
hirīmatā 165a
tritīyaṁ 210d
satīmanto 231a
satīmatāṁ 244d
jutīmanto 265e
[a]nupaśśīnāṁ 268a
other vowels lengthened medially (1 instance [6]):
-śārīro 147e
appāmātto 301a
consonants doubled unhistorically (3 instances [6]):
soggatiṅ 101d
kaṭukapphalaṁ 174d
akkuśalā 414b
shortening of vowels (6 instances [6]):
bhuñjeyă 295c
mucceyă 303b, 304b, 305b
paṭijāggreyă 312d
6 There is a great disrcepency between the Pāḷi and Patna texts here, because in the former many
present tense verbs have their endings lengthened m.c. (e.g. ramatī, vijjatī, jayatī, nayatī, āpajjatī,
palavatī, sahatī, bhāvayatī, labhatī). This makes me think that the underlying morphology of
these verbs in the original dialect was most probably ramate, vijjate, jayate, nayate, āpajjate,
palavate, sahate, bhāvayate, labhate.