I 



76 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII, 



wide one has originated only in the interval between the Old 

 Bhasa and Modern Bhasa period. The corollary that can be 

 deducted from the above, with special regard to the Old Wes- 

 tern Rajasthani, is that the e, o sound was unknown to this 

 language, and consequently all es and os of the Old Western 

 Rajasthani were pronounced as narrow. 



In my " Notes " above mentioned, I have held that the 

 passing of the Old Western Rajasthani vocalic groups ai, aii into 

 e, 6 was effected simply through a process of contraction, 

 that is through suppression of the hiatus, the intermediate step 

 being the diphthongs ai, au. This was impugned by a distin- 

 guished Gujarat! scholar, N. B. Divatia, who proposed a different 

 theory according to which ai, aii passed into e, o through an 

 anti-samprasarana process, the intermediate forms being aya, 

 ava '. The reasons for which I cannot agree with Mr. Divatia's 

 theory and still hold to my explanation are the following :— 



(1) There are no sure instances of any ai, aii of the Old 

 Western Rajasthani having changed to aya, ava in any stage of 

 the language. The three examples of this pretended change 



which are quoted by Mr. Divatia, viz. < ?*k < ^x, ^W>rt < ^R% 

 and <mK< totc, constitute no proof, when one knows that 

 Old Western Rajasthani manuscripts often write ya for i. 

 Moreover, the two first examples are of a doubtful value, as 

 they are tatsamas and the aya in them mav be a corruption of 

 Sanskrit * instead of a modification of Old Western Rajasthani 

 y. There remains, therefore, only one example to sustain 

 Mr Divatia s theory, and even that one is infirmed by the 

 orthographical peculiarity mentioned above. 



(2) The change of ava to aii is one of the undoubted char- 

 acteristics of the Old Western Rajasthani, in contrast with the 

 Apabhramsa. Cfr. 0. W. Raj. «*ft< An. «ri* 0. W. Rai. 



TO* < Ap. *f^u, O. W. Raj. aixanr < Ap. jr^ ; 0. W 

 TOTO< Ap. v^TO, O. W. Raj. aiw3< Ap. *ro, etc. Now, 

 it is not admissible that a language , which has begun its existence 

 by reducing every ava of the Apabhramsa to au, should have 

 brought an back to ava again, in its later stage. 



(3) The diphthongal forms ai, au, which 1 explain as being 



n« w? n™ ?!' aU \ are found in a11 the earJ iest manuscripts 

 othGujarati and Maravarl, and there can be no doubt 



wH tiZ h a l\? U began t0 be subs fcituted for ai, aii in the 

 Xr™ a lie latter 7 ere , pronounced as diphthongs, and only 

 f™; Were reduC ^ d to lon S ^ ^we\s. If ai , aii had 



L Mr ™t°S y l' ,2 m m ^ he earliest Gujarati-Maravari stage, 

 asMr. Divatia holds, we do not understand why manuscripts 



1 See Irui. Ant., Vol. XLIV, Pt. DLII and D^ January and May 

 1915, and cfr. also ft B. Divatia's mtfr *HT #r ■fwfK P. 6. 



