a peculiar form

The story of the general Siiha A IV 179ff retold Vin I 233ff contains an odd
verbal form jiiranti p. 188 and 237, respectively, according to the
Sinhalese tradition. The Burmese reading, however, is jiridanti sic! The
commentators give two mutually exclusive explanations of the term: the first
is that the verb means "to be ashamed," the alternative is that it means "to
come to and end", "to stop." The first explanation evidently derives the
verb from the root hrii, cf. Sanskrit jihreti, jihriyat etc., the second one
would seem to rely on the root jri "to go." The first one fits the context
very well, but the readings cause difficulties. One would expect a form like
jirihanti or possibly jihiranti, but not jiiranti (< jihiranti?) or
jiridanti; the latter form is possibly a mistake for jirihanti as it is
difficult to explan the presence of /d/ on phonological or etymological
grounds (there is no matching root). I have never met with anything
comparable in the Pali canon. My question is therefore: would it be possible
to explain the peculiar Burmese reading on paleographical grounds?

Ole Pind


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