1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 20,3 



has quoted, though uncommon in modern Bengali, are not foreign to 

 it ; chalu, for instance, as a present participle and its compounds are 

 not altogether unknown. But four centuries ago, GrovindaDasa, 

 a Bengali poet, used it and its cognate forms almost to the exclusion 

 of all others. Thus he says — 



$flfasj ^#t ft*TT>5T <5t«1 f*ft?fo1 

 Again : T[f«r<5R Jffsf y%* <$?e #Tft I 

 In another place C5}1?C*f-5t 5 *F C^t? ^1% CSf?T. I 

 Of the* second form chati, we have innumerable instances in old 

 works, and even in the poetry of this century. Dehhi and dehhili are 

 likewise common, and in the mouths of the common people the only 

 forms in use. The Uriya future dekhibi is in Bengali de/chibe, but the 

 change is so slight that I do not think it would justify our attributing 

 it to an independant parentage. In the conditional or subjunctive 

 past delchi-thdnti, Mr. B e a m e s recognises a more perfect form than 

 the Bengali dekhitdm, but had he taken up the true Bengali condi- 

 tional dehhiyd thdkitdm, he would have found that, with the exception 

 of the nasal mark, the two are closely alike, and formed in either case 

 with the help of the auxilliary verb, sthd. Of the twelve forms of the 

 verb achka, achcM, achha'i, achho, achhis, achhe, achhi, achhen, &c, nine 

 are Bengali and only three forms, achhan, achhun and achhanti, are 

 new. Of these the last is by far the oldest. It shews a lingering of the 

 Sanskrit affix anti. According to the rules of the Prakrit, Sanskrit 

 compound consonants drop one of them and lengthen the proceed- 

 ing vowel, and accordingly, we find in Bengali the ti dropped and 

 the n preceded by a long vowel as in dchhen= to Uriya achlianti. 

 This elision of the ti is altogether modern. I think in old Bengali 

 the affix occurs in its full form of anti, though I cannot just now 

 recall to memory any instance in proof of it. The Pandit says he 

 too has met with it, but he has given no example. Another mark- 

 ed peculiarity in Uriya is, the separation of the base from the affix, 

 as in Karu achhi and their compounds. In Bengali they are united 

 according to the rules of Sandhi — Karidchhi ; but this is not a matter 

 worthy of any remark, so I shall pass it by. 



Of pronouns Mr. B e a m e s has given an elaborate analysis, tak- 

 ing his examples from the Bengali, Uriya, Marhatta, Hindi, Punjabi, 

 Sindhi and Gruzerati j but the result is not satisfactory. He has 



