Lilavai

SR No.: 002796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 500
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 15 MB

Page 104

INTRODUCTION
VIII. ii. 154. : fra SFT manat quran alat coret a J I Have तलो दान क्रियते। Because the grammarians were making these distinctions in stereotyped literary Prakrits, they were perfectly justified to do so to the extent to which their rules were confirmed by literary usage.
Though the author of the Lilāvati says that he is writing in Marahattha-desi-bhāsā, it would not be correct to presume that his language is the same as the language spoken in Mahārāstra at his time. All that one can assume is that his is a literary language, expressed by a man of learning, but based on or closely akin to the vernacular of Mahārāstra sometime earlier than the age of the author.
Between the literary languages known by the names Prākrit and Apabhrarsa the vocabulary is practically and substantially common ; many authors cultivated them side by side, and the grammatical elements akin to them and current in the contemporary stage of the Modern IndoAryan as spoken by the people often affected them. Scrutinised from this point of view, we find in the dialect of the Lilävati good many traits which are not usual in Prākrit or Māhārästri but are quite normal in Apabhramsa as described by Hemacandra and as current in literature: i) The change of m to v, or nasalised form of it, Ū or mv. ii) Confusion of genders especially between the mas. and neu. nouns. iii) Variations between short and long vowels.: iv) Some words stand without any terminations.* v ) Nom. and Acc. sing. forms, which are often identical in Apabhrarsa, are mutually confused; Inst. and Loc. pl. get interchanged;5 jo, so, eso stand for jam, tan, eyam, which is quite normal in Apabh. vi Some of the pronominal forms are loosely used. vii) The Gerund form samānavi is recognised by grammarians only in Apabh. Thus there is no doubt that the Prākrit or the Marahattha-desi-bhāsā used by the author of the Lilavati has incorporated certain tendencies of Apabhramsa : either he inherited them through his close study of Apa. Ihramsa literature or through the channel of his mother-tongue or local vernacular which had some points common with literary Apabhramsa.
1 Compare Hemacandra's Grammar VIII. iv. 397. 2 Ibidem Sūtra 445, 3 Ibidem Sūtra 329-30. 4 Ibidem 344-45. 5 Ibid. 347. 6 See above p. 75, Footnote 1.