1883.] 
G. A Grierson— Essays on Bihari Declension. 
153 
Let us take weak forms first:— 
(1) . Skr. nom. sing. R"# ‘a house;’ gen. sing. J2TV*?T; Magadhi Pr. 
nom. sing. ST, ‘a house,’ gen. sing. hence (ekt^) ; hence, by 
elision of final Bihari oblique form, g^T. 
(2) . Skr. nom. sing. ‘ what is to be done ;’ gen. sing. ; 
Mg. Pr. nom. sing. gen. sing. ; hence Bihari 
nominative ‘ what is to be done,’ ‘ an action ;’ oblique 3fT«lT ‘ of an 
action :’ Bihari locative, = Mg. Pr. ; Skr. 
(3) . Skr. nom. sing. ?5rf, ‘a thing done;’ gen. sing, ; Mg. Pr. 
nom. sing. (as if from Skr. Jfffcfi), gen. sing. ; 
A'rddha Mg. Pr. nom. sing. ; gen. sing. ; Bihari nom. sing. 
(^r) ‘an action,’ loc. sing. (tfi^TT) = Pr. 
= Skr. («5<T^J) *?■«?, ‘ in an action.’ 
One example of a strong form will suffice, Skr. nom. sing. ‘ a 
horse;’ gen. sing. ; Mg. Pr. nom. sing. ijusTF, * a horse,’ gen. 
sing. in^W, ifT^TC; Bihari, nom. sing. %^T, ‘ahorse,’ oblique form, 
WTfT, loc. sing. iqr? T ^*, = Mg. Pr. = Skr. *rsq. 
Similarly the Bihari oblique form in ^f, is really a plural, and is 
derived from the Sanskrit genitive plural, through the Mg. Pr. gen. plur. 
in (H. C. IV, 300), thus,— 
Skr. nom. sing. (for ^f^rrsj ), ‘ what is to be said ;’ gen. 
plur. *cfifq«T3TT*rr; Mg. Pr. nom. sing. ; gen. plur. Ap. 
Pr. nom. sing, (K. I. 50) ; gen. plur. hence Bihari nom. 
sing. ; obi. (with elision of ^ and contraction of concurrent vowels) 
efrfwf (for ; loc. plur. ^ = Ap. Pr. = Mg. Pr. 
= Skr. *ef>fa?T3n5rr TT!q. 
Note, it is difficult to derive the Bihari oblique form from the Ap. Pr. 
gen. termination for, though this would account for strong forms like 
ifi^T (= iiTV^l35 by contraction of the two concurrent vowels), it will not 
account for weak forms like 3 TT, which would be in Ap. Pr. spCsS, and not 
* 1 ^ 35 . But see contra Hoernle, pp. 194, 195. 
Affinity. 
One affinity must be noted here, the Bangali so-called gerund in the 
genitive case in ^FC, e. g. that is to say i^fitsie[T + K, just as in 
Bihari we have ^ and being respectively the signs 
of the genitive. 
Other oblique forms. 
There is another oblique form of the verbal noun which requires care¬ 
ful noting. We find it in the following forms ;— 
x 
