278 Inscription in old character on the [March, 



phy varies in the written Pali of books, being in Ceylonese pati, in 

 Burmese pati; while in Prakrit, the rules of which generally change the 

 hard to the soft consonants, t to d, t to d, the word is written qfe padi 

 as "^fWlT^f^ f° r Sfwwn^ffa & c - an d perhaps we may recognize a 

 final change into par in the modern Hindi, for instance in xji;re paros 

 from Sffasrsr prativesa vicinity, and other words. 



Substantives suffer modifications not so great in extent, but equally 

 remarkable, and significant of gradual corruption. 



The word man may serve as an example : Sans. *?w^j: manushyas ; 

 at Girnar, manuso ; at Dhauli and on the pillars, munise ; Pali 

 manusso ; Prakrit — ? Bhakha, mdnus. Again the Sanskrit, "yw. puru- 

 shas, is made at Girnar, puruso (?) ; at Dhauli, pulise ; Pali, puriso, 

 or poso ; Prakrit, puriso. In modern dialects it is only used as a 

 Sanskrit word. 



Of the changes undergone by the verbs a good example may be select- 

 ed in the substantive verb bhu, bhavati, be ; which is found unimpaired 

 in several instances at Girnar, though never so on the pillars ; — hoti, the 

 Pali form, sometimes takes its place in the Girnar tablets, — always on 

 the pillars. The Prakrit changes this to hodi, %ife; whence it is 

 further softened to ^^ hai and ^ hue in the modern dialects. 



WT. and X,fj as ti an ^ ndsti (Sanskrit mT^f and •ttf^l) are also 

 retained in the original form at Girnar: at Dhauli they became athi (m& 

 nathi; whereas in Pali they are converted into vtthi and natthi. The 

 future passive participle terminates as the Sanskrit in Tf^f, tavya, at 

 GVmar, and taviya at Dhauli; while Pali makes it tabba; Prakrit dabba ; 

 and the form is altogether lost in the modern bhdshas. This gradual 

 transition is well marked in the verb kri ; do: — Sans, karttavyam ; 

 Gir. katavyam ; Cut. kataviyam ; Pal. katavvam ; Prak. kddabbam. 



In writing many Sanskrit words in which the sth, or st, dental, or cere- 

 bral, are required, a curious rule is adopted at Girnar of representing 



them by a cerebral \ with the s subjoined, as AILJj teteya for f?r%"^Tfr> 

 may remain; H-Lrb^L a ^usasti for ^«T*lf% — }\ D^jL adhistdna for 

 ^jf*3TT*T. In all these the lowermost consonant is pronounced first. 

 Another similar anomaly is remarked in the mode of writing vy in 



Jb U A v yopatd (S. ^tttt) -|- A h' katavy am (^*rl-sii),8zc.ihev being iplac- 

 o o 



ed below the y, whereas on the pillars (where the double consonant is 



employed at all) it is correctly written i V y, The word bamhana, 9T^W, 

 is written with the h below Q~^X ; it may therefore on the above prin- 



