1S75.] Bajendralala Mitra — On a Coin of Kim an da from Karnal. 87 



The question then arises what does bhatisa or bhratisa mean ? and the 

 reply has already been given by Prinsep, Wilson, Cunningham, and Thomas, 

 that it is equivalent to bhratasa " of a brother". But, notwithstanding the 

 most profound veneration for the unanimous opinion of such high authori- 

 ties, I cannot divest myself of a doubt as to its accuracy. The word bhrdta 

 comes from the Sanskrit crude noun bhratri, and is analogous to pita from 

 pitri, "father," mdtd frommdtri, "mother," svasd from svasri, " sister", and 

 other words ending with the vowel ri in the crude form. Now, in all the 

 European languages of Aryan origin the final ri of the Sanskrit is repre- 

 sented by ar, not i or ri. Thus, pitri becomes ttot-qp in Greek, pater in Latin, 

 fat or in Old High German, fader in Anglo-Saxon, and fader, fadar, vader, 

 fatlier, &c, in others. In Persian it is pidar. Mdtri, in the same way, be- 

 comes, Greek ii-qnap, Latin mater, Old English moder, Anglo-Saxon modor, 

 Danish and Swedish moder, and muotar, muatar, muter, mutter, &c., in other 

 languages. In Persian it is madar, Svasri also becomes suster, sustre. 

 sostre, siceoster, swester, swyster, swistar, soror, sister, &c, always changino* 

 the Sanskrit ri into ar, er or or, never into i or ri. In the Indian vernaculars 

 ri when final changes into a, in the plural ar,* and this was also the 

 case in the Ariano-Pali, the Ceylonese Pali, and the Prakrits. These in- 

 stances would fully justify the inference that bhratri should change in 

 the same way ; and, as a matter of fact, we have for its counterparts in 

 the Greek (ppdrwp, Latin frater, French frere, Anglo-Saxon brodhor, 

 Old High German pruadar, English brother, &c, &c, the change every- 

 where being analogous to what takes place in pitri, mdtri, and svasri. In 

 Pali and Prakrit it becomes bhdtd. In the Taxila inscription line 4, we have 

 bhratara in the plural,f in the Peshawar Yase bhraterhi, plural, J and on the 

 Yfardak Vase bhrdta as read by me, and bhadar as read by Professor Dowson,§ 

 everywhere the ri changing into ar or a, but nowhere into i. And as the 

 coin legend is written in the same language in which the inscriptions are re- 

 corded, I venture to think that the assumption of the word in the coin 

 (bhrati or bhati) being a Pali form of bhratri quite inadmissible. There is 

 not a tittle of evidence to support it. 



Extraneous evidence on the subject is also against the assumption. I 

 believe it is not usual with kings to pride themselves upon their being a 

 brother to some one. In India the idea is particularly repugnant. An old 

 Sanskrit adage says, " He is great who is known by his own name ; he is 

 so and so who is known by the name of his father ; he is vile who is known 



* The Hindi mdyi may at first sight appear an exception, but in reality it is not 

 so, the final i in it being an honorific affix, and not the remnant of the Sanskrit ri. 

 Bhdyi in Bengali and Hindi are exceptions. 



t Journal, R. As. Soc, XX., p. 223. 



% Ibid., p. 241. 



J Ibid., p. 261. 



