Prakritsarvaswam

SR No.: 001369
Original Sutra Author: Markandey
Author: Krushnachandra Acharya
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 424
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrut, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Grammar
File Size: 20 MB

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प्राकृतसर्वस्वम् । origin whereas Sauraseni itself owes its origin to Sanskrit. Again a number of rules applicable to Mahārāştri are also applicable to the various Prākrit dialects such as Saurasenī, Paisāci and Māgadbi and so on. Mahārāştri in turn is modelled after Sanskrit grammar (cf. seşaḥ Samskytāt). Thus all the Prākrit dialects directly or indirectly have Sanskrit as their source, a fact clearly implied by the rules of Vararuci discussed above. It is also inferred that the very idea of composing a grammar of Prākrit might have occurred to the mind of native Sauskrit scholars only after the grammar of Sanskrit was systematised and that prior to this the necessity of framing rules for Prākrit might not have been felt. Just as the dialect of the people of PreSanskrit" age was raised to a literary status after being regulated by Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini, so also the Prākrit was raised to a literary status after being regulated by Prākrit grammar. In order to give literary status to the language a sense of sanctity was supposed to have been associated with the language. Hence the language of Pāṇini was sista bhāsā (language of the learned ) which was later known as Sanskrit; and the Prākrit, on the other hand, despite its various departures from Sanskrit was said to have its origin from Sanskrit, though originally Vararuci does not directly mean it which is obvious from his not giving a definite derivation of Prākrit from Sanskrit in general. But there is no doubt that his rules as mentioned above particularly indicate that they are framed after Sanskrit grainmar as their base.14 In order to give a sacred
13 Here by Pre-Sanskrit age I mean the period before Pāṇini,
14 Cf. the view of Dr. P. L. Vaidya in his edition of Prāksta Prakās'a, pp. V-VI.
.