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________________ THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE SATKHANDAGAMA AND THE PRAVACANASARA K. R. Chandra Th Satkhandagama' and the Pravacanasaraare regarded as 'senior' texts of the Siddhanta by the Digambara sect of the Jains. The dates of their composition are uncertain, varying as they do from early Christian centuries to sixth and eighth century A. D. Some scholars assign earlier date to the Satkhandagama whereas others to the Pravacanasara. The authors of the former work according to the commentator Virasena (A. D. 815) are Puspadanta and Bhutabali, and of the latter, the illustrious Kundakundacarya. A study of the language of the above-noted two texts is attempted for deciding on the chronological priority of the one over the other. This study covers the PS fully whereas the SA's four parts of the ist volume are covered. The editors of these works in their Introductions, claim that their language seem to be of the earlier Christian centuries. I here propose to test the validity (or otherwise) of their claims through the study of the linguistic usages that are available in these texts. In the beginning, we will compare the main features of their language with that of the grammar of Sauraseni as quoted by Hemacandra'. (i) Initial and medial dental n-, --- -7 -7-), conjuncts-nn-(-)and -nn-(-5), and conjunct of palatal nasal with a palatal consonant -nc- (3) are optionally quoted by Hemacandra in his Prakrit grammar, e.g. 712, fafel, af, 976 71, , 317, 3981, but in the sA and the PS there throughout is used. The cerebral nasal n., -n-, -nnand anuswara - for palatal (-n-) (ii) Hemacandracarya prescribes the augment -ssi- (- -) for the future tense, e.g. faftis, feta, etc. but in the PS we come across -ssa (-1) only, e.g. f ifa 7.70, sauf 8.44. (iii) The bhuv- and huv- stems of the root vbhu as quoted by Hemacandra, e.g. bhuvadi, huvadi are not traced in the SA and the PS. In the text of Ps, Upadhye at times has adopted words of the usage of Maharastri when the variants in the MSS. are of the Sauraseni usage. Pravacanasara, Ch. I Text Verse no. verse no. 24,25 56! 68 (A) Text ahio loya sayalaM Variant adhigo loga sakalaM k Variant jadhA tadha tadhA taha 8,8EUR 53,68,76 34 - tahA th
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________________ 20 sahiyaM aisaya rayaNaM suyakevali t (B) Text t t adhika k pattegaM k -loga- k khAigaM k ghAdi muMcadi hodi da sahitaM -daM adisaya radaNaM sudakevali On the other hand one would find that at several places the readings of the Sauraseni usage have been adopted leaving out those of the Maharastri usage found in the same works (Mss). t t Variant ahiyaM patteyaM -loya khAiyaM K. R. Chandra ghAi muMcai hoi 76 13 30 33 verse no. 2. Medial-k-is generally voiced and at time elided. 1. A tendency towards preservation of intervocalic consonants than that of elision. 3. Medial -g-retained 4. Medialt normally changed to -dat times dropped. 19 6. Medial d- almost preserved, very scarcely elided. 3 16 50 19 32 31 jai jadi d ahio dh adhigo tihA dh tidhA lahadi bh labhadi 5. Medial th at times softened and also changed to -h-. Text kathaM jadi sadA adhika dh d dh cakkadharA zrRM bhU aNubhavanti aNuhavanti When Upadhye is of the opinion that the date of Kundakunda, the author of the Pravacanasara falls in the beginning of the Christian era, then why are the Maharastri usages given preference in place of the Saurastri usages? This question remains _unanswered. Variant kahaM jai sayA ahiya cakkaharA I am at this junture tabulate what Upadhye and Jain's edited versions of the respective works show on the state of phonetic changes in the language of the texts of PS and SA': PS: Upadhye SA: Jain Medial consonants are elided also. Nirgrantha 67 24 36 81 often d for medial-t-. Verse no. 50 31, 50 22 19 73 75 -g- for medial -k- but it is often elided. sometimes -th- = -dh- but often -h,
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________________ Vol. III, 1997-2002 The Comparative Study.... Medial -dh- sometimes preserved but often changed to -h-. 7. Medial -dh- is normally preserved and at time changed to -h-. 8. Medial -bh- generally changed to -h- at times retained. These findings reveal that phonetically the language of PS is of an earlier stage than that of the SA. A sample analysis of phonetic changes in the SA. and PS. by us : (A) Pravacanasara (=PS), Ch. 1 (Verses 1 to 92). Medial Consonants (Nos.) (Percentage) Critical Remarks on Prof. Upadhye's opinion. 3 % -- = -K -8- -y- 58 % 1 19 13 15 Not fully correct because -k- is optionally voiced. Fully correct. 8- = -8 -- 0 Fully correct. -- = -t -d- -y- = -th- dh- -h- -d- = -d- -y- -dh- = -dh- 162 40 0 5 13 22 0 4 39 % 100 % 0 % 3 % 78 % 19 % 0 % 28 % 72 % 100 % 0 % 28.5 % 71.5 % 13 % 87 % Not correct because it is often changed to-h Fully correct. Incorrect because it is often changed to -hFully correct -bh- = -bh -h- 4 27 The above-cited analysis reveals that there are 52 instances of retention, 186 instances of voicing and 103 instances of elision of medial consonants, i.e 15% retention, 49% voicing and 36% dropping, hence, the elision is more than twice the retention.
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________________ 22 K. R. Chandra Nirgrantha (B) Satkhandagama (SA), khanda 1, part 1, book 1 (sutras 1 to 90). (Percentage) Medial consonants (Nos.) -K- = -- Critical remarks on Prof. Upadhye's opinion. 2 It is mostly elided. 3(-) % 1.5(-) % 95(+) % 950 % 50 % No comment Fully correct 16 82(-) % 18(+) % Scanty instances 1 0 % 100 % No comment 32 % 68 % -th- = -th -h- -d-.-d -y. -dh- = -dh- h -bh- . -bh- -b- Fully Correct 51 2 31 0 16 6(+) % 94(-) % No comment 0 % 100 % The above-recorded analysis reveals that there are 113 instances of retention, 73 instances of voicing and 189 instances of elision, i.e. 30 % retention, 19.5% voicing and 50.5% dropping. In the PS the voicing is 49% i.e. 30% more than that in the SA but the dropping in the SA is 14% more than that in the PS. Analysis of morphological usages. Suffixes of Locative Singular PS. SA. -T EY, FE PE, FEHT 89 -I 30, -f R. -fi 8 -fre is an archaic declensional suffix of locative singular which is nearly 25 % in the PS. whereas in the SA. its percentage is only 6. As far as the absolutive forms are concerned the - GU suffix is popular in the PS. and there is no -507 suffix in the PS. whereas Jain traces the absolutive forms with the - 370 suffix in the SA. Thus both on the phonological and morphological grounds we find that the language of SA. is of a later stage than that of the PS. in the evolutionary process of MIA dialects.
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________________ Vol. III, 1997-2002 The Comparative Study.... 23 Therefore the date of composition of SA. is younger than that of the PS. Thus Kundakundacarya happens to have lived a few centuries before the composition of the Satkhandagama. [As we have observed on Dr. Chandra's learned paper he contributed to the Jambujyoti where, too, these two works were involved in comparison, his analysis and, as its result, the date-determinations made can be valid only after removing the earlier verses incorporated in the Pravacanasara. -Editors) Annotations : 1. SA = Satkhandagama, Ed. H.L. Jain, Amravati 1939. 2. PS = Pravacanasara Ed. A. N. Upadhye, Agas 1964. 3. See Siddha-Haima-sabdanusasana, 8.4. 260, 261, 263, 269, 270, 274, 275, 277, 282 and 285. 4. The editor has made use of four works (as Mss A, P, C And K) containing the text and commentary in Sanskrit. These Mss are of the 19th and 20th century A. D. and they were copied from Mss of 15th 18th century A. D. While editing the PS he has not given preference to any work (Ms.) for adopting a particular texual reading. 5. "I am inclined to believe, after this long survey of the available material, that Kundakunda's age lies at the beginning of the Christian era". Introduction, p. 21, Pravacanasara. 6. PS "Intro.," pp. 106-120. 7. SA Vol. I, Book 1, Preface, pp. 78-87.