THE PRAKRITS 29
dialect of Acokan times kept the three sibilants which Paicaci reduces to one, although the Gipsy dialect and the dialects of the Hindu Kush distinguish still between s and s on the one hand and g on the other. 1 The possession by Paicaci of the letters / and /, and the use of one nasal n only, have been adduced by Konow 2 as proof of location in addition to its close con- nexion with Pali, and, as these features were preserved in modern Malvi, and its hardening of soft consonants is probably due to Dravidian influence, Paicaci has been located in accord with Indian tradition in the Vindhya region. Inscriptions suggest also that south of the Narmada there was a measure of indepen- dent development, adding a south-western to the three great groups already known ; thus in the south we have duhutuya, dhua in the later Maharastrl, pointing to the source of Ardhama- gadhi dhiiyd, as opposed to the dhita of the northern inscriptions, Pali dhita, £aurasenl (beside duhida) and Magadhi dhidd, Vedic dhita. beside the normal duhita?
The characteristics of these Old Prakrits are simple.* They include the loss of the vowels r and /, and of the diphthongs at and au ; reduction in the number of sibilants and nasals ; and the assimilation of consonants. They show also the operation of the substitution of the expiratory for the musical accent, a feature which is obvious in Sanskrit during the same period. Fuither, they are subject to a most important law which reduces each syllable to the form either of a vowel, short or long, a short vowel followed by one or two consonants, or a long vowel followed by a single consonant ; the resulting changes of form are intensified by the confusion which results from substituting a long vowel with a single consonant for an originally short vowel with two consonants, or the use of a nasal vowel in lieu of
1 Reichelt, Festschrift Streitbirg, p. 245.
J ZDMG. lxiv. 95; JRAS. 1921, pp. 244 ff. ; cf. Ranganathaswami Aryavaraguru, IA. xlviii. 211 f. Przyluski {La ligende de tempereur Afoka, p. 72) holds that Pali may have had relations with Kaucambl.
s Luders, KZ. xlix. 233 f.
- ~ * LiiJers, Bruchstucke buddh. Dramtn, pp. 29 ff. ; Keith, Sanskrit Drama, pp. 72 ff.
85 ff, 121 ff. Contrast Michelson, AJP. xli. 265 ff ; Bloch, JA. 1911, ii. 167. In a Prakrit of the Western Panjab is composed the Dhammapada of the Dutreuil de Rhins MS. ; Konow, Festschrift Wmdisch, pp. 85 ff. (1st cent. A. D.) ; Luders, SBA 1914, pp. 101 ff. (3rd cent. A. D.)
