GOG On tlie "Peculiarities of the Giithd Dialect. [No. 6. 



The G-atlia is written in a variety of metres from the facile octo- 

 syllabic anushtup, to the most complicated Sdrdulatnlcridita, which 

 includes 19 syllables to the foot, and is remarkable for the simplicity 

 of its style, and the easy natural flow of its language. Its pecu- 

 liarities are those of a language in a state of transition ; it pro- 

 fesses to be Sanskrit, and yet does not conform to its rules. In it 

 we find the old forms of the Sanskrita grammar gradually losing 

 their expressive power, and prepositions and periphrastic expres- 

 sions supplying their places, and time-hallowed verbs and conju- 

 gations juxtaposed to vulgar slangs and uncouth provincialisms. 

 At one place, orthography is sacrificed for the sake of prosody and a 

 word of a single short syllable is inflated into one of three syllables, 

 while at another the latter yields to the former and a molossus 

 supplies the place of a pyrrhic or a tribrach. A spirit of economy 

 pervades the whole, and syllables and w6rds are retrenched and 

 modified with an unsparing hand. In the Lalita Yistara, a work of 

 the highly developed class, instances of these peculiarities occur in 

 great profusion, and they may be generally referred to (A) exigencies 

 of metre, (B) provincialisms, and (C) errors of syntax and prosody. 

 A. Of the changes which may be attributed to the exigencies of 

 metre, prolongation, contraction and elision of vowels, elision of conso- 

 nants, and the segregation of compound consonants and long vowels 

 into their simple elements, appear to be the most frequent. We 

 shall quote a few instances : 



1st. Of the prolongation of vowels the following may be taken as 

 examples. They are not so frequently met with, as contractions. 



?TT ^ for *r ^ p. 260.* 



^T ^ for ^ ^ p. 292. 



5RT?fT for STCTrP p. 288. 



TT^T*T for -f^n^r p. 288. 



?T for rn: p. 293. 

 2nd. Of contractions of vowels, instances occur almost in every 

 s'loka. They are generally effected by the use of short for long 

 vowels, and the substitution of i and u for e, ai, o and au. Tor 

 example : 



* These instances are quoted from the edition of the Lalita Vistara now in 

 course of publication in the Bibliotheca Indica. 



