Samdesarasaka of Abdala Rahamana

SR No.: 001433
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Abdul Rahman
Publisher: Prakrit Granth Parishad
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 124
Language: English, Gujarati, Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 6 MB

Page 8

INTRODUCTION
THE GRAMMAR and METRES I ORTHOGRAPHY AND GRAMMAR
A conflicting and confused orthography is quite characteristic of the Ap. Mss. The spelling of grammatical forms and words even in the same Ms. presents bewildering variations. One form now exhibits an now an C. Another form has at one time one of its vowels nasalized, while a second time it appears without the Anunāsika. Similarly in the writing of 2 or in the introduction of the Tale or in the choice of 7 or up there is little consistency. There are two or three facts which can be advanced to explain this remarkable orthographic variation of the Ap. Mss. One explanation which obviously suggests itself is to assume that in the speech of the author there actually obtained an option of pronunciation in the case of the forms or words concerned, the orthographic diversity being but a reflex of these optional pronunciations. But this sort of assumption works in a limited number of cases only. As regards the others, there is enough evidence, brought forth by Alsdorf (and Jacobi) through a statistical analysis of the form-and word-variants occuring in some Ap. Mss., to prove that either confusion of phonetically similar forms or divergent scribal practices lie at the basis of this variation. Further, it seems quite probable that some types of variants, indicative of a stage of language more advanced than one represented by the text, bear influence of the spoken idiom of the scribes and as such, are to be considered modernisms from a relative view-point.
These are the chief agencies responsible for the inconsistencies and divergences in the Ap. orthography. It is to be noted that even after taking everything into consideration, it is considerably difficult to achieve some measure of certainty as to whether a particular form is really reflective of an actual alteration in pronunciation already developed in an author's time or it is merely a scribal variant.