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Title: A Final (?) Note on kuśaṇa-mūla in the Nasik Inscription of Uṣavadāta
Author(s): SALOMON, Richard
Journal: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
Volume: 43    Date: 2020   
Pages: 167-179
DOI: 10.2143/JIABS.43.0.3289055

Abstract :
The term kuśaṇa-mūla, occurring twice in Nasik inscription 12, has been the subject of a long controversy. In 1978 V.V. Mirashi first correctly proposed a connection with the familiar Buddhist term kuśala-mūla ('root of merit'), but he thought that the form kuśaṇa- was a 'mistake' for kuśala-. Here it is argued that the variant form is not a mistake, but rather a dialectal variant reflecting the alternation between n/ṇ and l that is widely attested in Indo-Aryan languages, especially in cases of dissimilation of proximate syllables with l.

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