350 Lassen on the History traced [No. 100. 



the word we are in search of ; it will therefore be in the usual 

 form a 1 or d. Now the word is thus written upon the Yndo- 

 pherres-coins IFHfcfc, dh standing here too for the first letter. 



Before recognising these representatives of the first two 

 signs* of T^n^ I had asked myself, by what word awTrjp would 

 be expressed in Sanscrit ? The question was easily answered ; 

 it could only be trdtri, nominative trdtd, accusative tr a tar am ; 

 the nominative in Pracrit is tdddro for this ;f thus 1>^T"l"i was 

 without difficulty to be read. The reading, discovered after- 

 wards, T1^ confirmed this interpretation. For want of a 

 more exact knowledge, £, dh, was substituted for d. t in the 

 first syllable shows a state of pronunciation, still more corrupted, 

 but otherwise it is an acceptable confirmation, by establishing 

 the dental sound of the beginning. 



In the Pracrit of the dramas, the initial t usually retains 

 its class (as a letter) while the t, included by other letters, is 

 generally subdued .(as a sound) to d, I find in Tin this transi- 

 tion of t to d; without asserting, however, that this form of 

 the d had been adopted upon the older coins. He that still ad- 

 heres to the reading of tdtdro, can only be opposed by reasons, 

 not to be derived from the characters. The form T*U£ which 

 reduces the initial also to dh, refers to a still later period of 

 the language. 



I think, I have sufficiently explained the usual epithets and 

 titles, and I may now be allowed to survey the principal results. 

 The language has apparently manifested a strong bent to 

 the Pracrit of the dramas, by its absorptions and by forming 

 new, short forms of A from the long ones; the nominatives 

 in 6, as belonging also to Zend, prove nothing (as regards 

 Pracrit affinity) words as rdgan and dharmo are so undoubtedly 

 Indian, and not Zendic, that the relation of the language to 

 India is quite evident from them ; also gaja for victory, and 

 tdddro for deliverer (though I shall not deny, that the latter 

 belongs to the Zend) are entirely Indian roots. 



* Mr. James Prinsep's last reading of this word was *P*T£'£ Nandatasa. — 

 H. T. P. 



f My Grammar, p. 291. 



