Early Eastern Indo‐Aryan Case: Evidence From the <i>Caryāpada</i> ¹

Abstract The history of the case systems of the Eastern Indo‐Aryan languages is characterised by the radical reduction of the set of inherited nominal morphology, leaving only a generic oblique marker in the modern languages. At the same time, the case systems of these languages have been expanded through univerbation of postpositions, typically including a genitive, locative and a dative‐accusative. However, the interaction of these two groups is not straightforward and key questions remain unanswered by existing sources on the topic such as Chatterji (1926; The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language ). This article analyses the Caryāpada corpus, an invaluable record of an early stage of the Eastern Indo‐Aryan languages, in order to resolve some of these issues. It is shown that at this stage the language had already largely transitioned towards the system seen in the modern languages. At the same time some conservative features remain, including agreement for gender and case on the innovative genitive suffix as well as a wide array of usages for the inherited oblique which the modern languages individually reflect only in part. This article contributes to discussions around the development of case paradigms, particularly the complex interactions that come into play between existing forms and innovative forms coalescing into a single system.