Jain Prakrit - Pali and Ardha-Magadhi

Pali and Ardha-Magadhi

The most archaic of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages are the inscriptional Aśokan Prakrit on the one hand and Pāli and Ardhamāgadhī on the other, both literary languages. The Indo-Aryan languages are commonly assigned to three major groups - Old, Middle and New Indo-Aryan, a linguistic and not strictly chronological classification. The Middle Indo-Aryan languages are younger than Rigvedic Sanskrit, which is also closest to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, but were contemporaneous with the 'Classical' Sanskrit of Panini. Some scholars believe that a number of morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of Ṛgvedic Sanskrit, the main base of 'Classical' Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from Ṛgvedic. MIA languages, though individually distinct, share features of phonology and morphology which characterize them as parallel descendants of Old Indo-Aryan. Various sound changes are typical of the MIA phonology:

1. The vocalic liquids 'ṛ' and 'ḷ' are replaced by 'a', 'i' or 'u';
2. the diphthongs 'ai' and 'au' are monophthongized to 'e' and 'o';
3. long vowels before two or more consonants are shortened;
4. the three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either 'ś' or 's';
5. the often complex consonant clusters of OIA are reduced to more readily pronounceable forms, either by assimilation or by splitting;
6. single intervocalic stops are progressively weakened;
7. dentals are palatalized by a following '-y-';
8. all final consonants except '-ṃ' are dropped unless they are retained in 'sandhi' junctions.

The most conspicuous features of the morphological system of these languages are: loss of the dual; thematicization of consonantal stems; merger of the f. 'i-/u-' and 'ī-/ū-' in one 'ī-/ū-' inflexion, elimination of the dative, whose functions are taken over by the genitive, simultaneous use of different case-endings in one paradigm; employment of 'mahyaṃ' and 'tubhyaṃ' as genitives and 'me' and 'te' as instrumentals; gradual disappearance of the middle voice; coexistence of historical and new verbal forms based on the present stem; and use of active endings for the passive. In the vocabulary, the MIA languages are mostly dependent on Old Indo-Aryan, with addition of a few so-called 'deśī' words of (often) uncertain origin.

There are many remarkable analogies between Pali and Ardhamagadhi (Half Magadhi), an old form of Magadhi preserved in ancient Jain texts. Ardhamagadhi differs from the eastern Prakrit of Ashokan inscriptions on similar points as Pali. For example, Ardhamagadhi too does not change r into l, and in the noun inflexion it shows the ending -o instead of the eastern Prakritic -e at least in many metrical places. This similarity is not accidental, since Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, preached in the same area (Magadha) as Gautama Buddha.

Dhammapada verse 103:
Yo sahassaṃ sahassena, saṅgāme mānuse jine;
Ekañca jeyyamattānaṃ, sa ve saṅgāmajuttamo.

Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer just one — himself.

Jain Samana sutta 125:
Jo sahassam sahassanam, samgame dujjae jine
Egam jinejja appanam, esa se paramo jao.

One may conquer thousands and thousands of enemies in an invincible battle;
but the supreme victory consists in conquest over one's self.