Pali Phāsu- and Dātta-

Abstract

Madame C. Caillat in a magistral article in Journal Asiatique, CCXLVIII, 1, 1960, 41–64, followed by a note in JA, CCXLIX, 4, 1961, 497–502, has in establishing the meaning of Pa.1 phāsu- confirmed its connexion with sprś. I question Mme. Caillat's exposition on one point only, namely the exact form of the original derivative of sprś lying behind Pa. phāsu-. Like the previous scholars whom she quotes—Kern, Hoernle, Pischel, and Schwarzwald—she assumes the original form to have been *sparśu-, the resultant *phassu- becoming phāsu-, although recognizing that examples of such a change in Pali are rare; and for most of these an alternative explanation will be offered below. Nevertheless in Prakrit and, according to Pischel (Gr. Pk., § 62), with special frequency in Ardhamāgadhi the first geminate to be shortened with lengthening of a previous vowel was -ss- (Turner, BSOAS, XXXIII, 1,1970,171). The Jaina texts in Ardhamāgadhī have both phāsaī ∽ Pa. phassati < *sparśati and phāsuya- ∽ Pa. phāsu(ka)-; and it is tempting to see the saffle origin for ā in both Ardhamāgadhī words phāsai and phāsuya-. But the existence of Pa. phāsu(ka)- invites the assumption of another origin than spass- both for it and Pk.amg. phāsuya-, for according to Mme. Caillat (JA, 1960,47) the antiquity of Pa. phāsu- is assured by the occurrence of aphāsu- in the Pātimokkha as well as by phāsu- in the Aśokan Calcutta-Bairāt Minor Rock Edict.