Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/207

Rh interesting for many reasons, I give a small number of them in an appendix to help the students to study the matter separately.

I cannot possibly dilate upon the subject any further. We may very well hold, that the non-existence of dual and the currency of a simplified past system in the Prākṛtas, argue in favour of the natural growth of the Prākṛtas. That the early Prākṛta or Pāli, retains many archaic Vedic forms, as are unknown in Sanskrit, is admitted by all scholars; this point of structural unity of early Pāli with the Vedic, will be very briefly noticed in the subsequent lecture. I now proceed to notice a fact, which will show (though perhaps faintly) that a continuity of the Vedic was maintained through many Prākṛta dialects, which have now died out without leaving any literary evidence of their existence.

It is a striking phenomenon, that we have stored up many words in our vernacular which are met with in the oldest known Vedic speech only, and which were not in use in Sanskrit, which is wrongly regarded as a direct and pure offspring of the Vedic language. I do not claim to be exhaustive, but I should think that the list I append here, is not a very short one. (1) অঙ্কী and অঙ্কুশী correspond in meaning exactly with আঁকুশী—in ignorance of the origin, the wrong derivation আ + কর্ষ has been imagined. The word অঙ্কুশ is a separate word altogether. (2) The Vedic word অমলা is used by us in the form আমলা; আমলক became a pedant word even in the days of the early উপনিষদs and the word আমলকী derived from it, is used in our high flown language. (3) আণ্ডা is an egg as well as a fœtus in the womb. The Sanskrit form অণ্ড is a later form derived from আণ্ডা. Considering it a Prākṛta word, the শিষ্টs dropped the final আ, as non-feminine forms with আ final could not be adopted.