Vajjalaggam

SR No.: 001383
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jayvallabh
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1969
Total Pages: 708
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 13 MB

Page 34

INTRODUCTION
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(ix) The Language of the Vajjälagga :
According to Laber (loc. cit. p. 9 ) the language of the VL is essentially Jaina Māhārāștri, a name given by Hermann Jacobi (Kalpasūtra, p. 17; Ausg. Erz. p. XI f.) to that particular form of Māhārāștri Prākrit which was used by the Svetāmbara Jainas in their non-canonical prose and metrical works. According to Dr. Ghatage (Kahāņaya-tigam, Introduction, p. 63), it presents to us, along with the Prākrit stories preserved in Devendra's commentary on the Uttarādhyana-sūtra, the latest form of Jaina Māhācāştrī' of which the various Nijjuttis (old metrical com
1. The oaly traits of Jaina Māhārāştri that we come across in the VL are the following: -
(i) Preponderance of 79a (HS. VIII.1.180 3ui qua:). The vowel 27 or 371 remaining behind after the elision of the postvocalic F, I, 7, 1 , 7, 4, and attracts to itself a lightly pronounced (39759aTu ) as a hiatus-filler. See Pischel, PG $ 137 (p. 137). Fara occurs mostly after a preceding 3 or 41, but frequently also after a preceding 1, 3, 5 or at. This phenomenon is peculiar to Ardhamāgadhi and Jaina Māhārāśţrī and is absent in Maharastri works like गाथासप्तशती ana सेतुबन्ध.
(ii) Change of non-initial and intervocalic to "I and retention of initial I and of 7 forming part of a conjunct consonant other than 5, L, T. See Pisehel, P.G. $ 224 (p. 161).
(iii) Change of initial and postvocalic to 7 (rather than to om as in Māhārāştri). E.g. 97 (1), Badez4 (141), 550994 (281), Totgan (470), 480 ( 99) (512, 518), BITHE (533), (= faeit) (764).
(iv) Use of the expressions a emiat (9, 17, 128, 456, 668), Aromt (32, 40, 162, 331, 405, 614, 747, 756, and 2 amè (508, 533, 712). These expressions occur frequently in Jaina Māhātāștri. The 981fat has been effected here on the assumption that 7 is a medial and not an initial sound. See Piscbel, PG $ 170 (p. 127). According to Pischel a becomes a proclitic word here and is looked upon as the first member of a compound. Consequently in some printed editions of Jaina Māhārāștri works these expressions are printed with a hyphen between 7 and the following verbal form. In the गाथासप्तशती we get the expressions ण आणामि, ण aportet, fore, oat and op afila, without the qfa.
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