Early Example Of Late Middle Indo Aryan Post Position

This article, "An Early Example of a Late Middle Indo-Aryan Postposition?" by Paul Dundas, published by ZZ_Anusandhan, is a tribute to the late Professor H.C. Bhayani, a renowned scholar of Prākrit, Apabhramśa, and early Indo-Aryan languages. Dundas fondly recalls Bhayani's immediate engagement with his work and his insightful guidance.

The core of the article focuses on identifying potential proto-Apabhramśa or Late Prākrit forms that foreshadow later Indo-Aryan linguistic developments. Dundas examines a verse from Haribhadra's Pañcāsakaprakaraṇa, a work dated to the early sixth century CE, which describes Jain ritual and practice. The verse in question is Pañcāsakaprakaraṇa 13.41:

na khalu pariņāmamettam pudāņakāle asakkiyarahiyam gihiņo tanayam tu jaim dūsai āņāe padibuddhum.

Dundas's translation is: “The mere resolve (to give) on the part of the householder which is devoid of bad action at the time of giving does not render faulty the ascetic who is fixed in the command (of scripture)."

The linguistically significant element in this verse is the word tanayam. Abhayadeva Sūri, a commentator, glosses it as satkam, meaning "possessing" or "belonging to," which fits the context without a precise grammatical identification. Dundas suggests that tanayam appears to agree with pariņāmamellam (the resolve) and amplifies gihiņo (of the householder), functioning similarly to "relating to" or "on the part of."

Dundas strongly suspects that tanayam is an early form of the postpositional adjective tunaenam. This postposition, when added to a genitive case, signifies "because of." The earliest attested occurrences of tunaenam are found in the Āvasyaka Cúrņi (seventh century) and Haribhadra's (eighth century) commentary on the Āvasyaka Niryukti. This construction is more common in late Prākrit and Apabhramśa and eventually evolved into an Old Gujarati postposition.

If Pañcāsakaprakaraṇa is indeed a sixth-century text as suggested by R. Williams, then tanayam, used with a non-oblique case ending in conjunction with a genitive, could represent a very early instance of this postposition. Alternatively, it might indicate a slightly later origin for the text, prompting a re-evaluation of Williams's dating.

The article concludes by referencing the Paiasaddamahannavo, a dictionary that lists tanaya as a desi (native) form meaning "sambandhi" (relative/related to), providing an example where it's used with the genitive/locative case (maha tanae). The sources for this dictionary are Hemacandra's Prākrit grammar and the late Prākrit text Surasundaricaria.

In essence, Dundas proposes that the word tanayam in Haribhadra's Pañcāsakaprakaraṇa might be a crucial early example of a linguistic form that developed into a significant postposition in later Indo-Aryan languages, potentially offering new insights into the dating of early Jain texts.