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GENERAL EDITOR'S
FOREWORD
It is really a matter of great pleasure to publish A Critical Study of Mahapurana of Puşpadanta' a thesis that earned doctorate degree for the learned author, Dr. Ratna Shriyan. She has studied the character, scope and function of Deśya element in the Middle Indo-Aryan. Moreover, she has critically studied more than 1,000 desya and rare words from the Mahāpurāņa of Puşpadanta. Her method is empirical. She takes a particular word, notes the meaning given in the Sanskrit gloss, collects the different references where the word occurs in the Mahāpurāņa and other works as well (here the author has wisely used the indexes of the critical editions of the published Apabhramsa works), quotes Deśināmamālā, takes note of different forms in which the word is used, gives us Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Tamila and Telugu counterparts, examines the meanings in all these contexts and finally arrives at its true form and meaning. Hence the work has become very useful for those who are interested in the study of Apabhramsa, Desi, and NIA languages.
I gratefully acknowledge the grant of Rs. 2,500/- given to us by Bangalore University by way of subvention towards its publication. And I am thankful to the author for allowing us to include her thesis in our L. D. Series.
L. D. Institute of Indology,
Ahmedabad-9.
(INDIA).
Dalsukh Malvania
Director.
Jain Education International
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