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 99

LILAVAI
described by the grammarian and attested by literary works. In the beginning it is the generic name Prākṛta that is current both in earlier grammars and literary works. It appears highly probable that the basic structure of Vararuci's Prakṛta-prakāśa originally consisted of the first 8 or 9 chapters, and it deals with Prakrit only. There are strong reasons to suspect that its concluding chapters are later additions. Hemacandra also calls the basic dialect described by him in details by the name Prakrit. On the other hand Purusottama describes the basic dialect not only by the general name Prākṛta but also by the specific Mahārāṣṭri. It is likely that Vararuci was acquainted with the Gahakoso of Hala, a gatha from which indicates that its language is Prakrit. The dialect spoken by Sutradhara in the Mṛccehakatika is called Prakrit by its author, though in later grammarian's terminology it may be Sauraseni. The term Prakrit has no regional colouring at all. The Indian drama, according to Bharata, has given first place to the pravṛtti, i. e. standards of dress, language, custom and profession, called by the name Avanti covering the area of Central India and the adjacent territory; so it is not unlikely that the basic and primary Prakrits of the plays came to be known as Sauraseni and Avanti, the latter just a variation of the former. That is how Dr. Vaidya has lately explained the presence of Avant! in the plays.'
72
Dandin, in his Kavyadarśa i. 34-5, plainly says that Saurasent and Gaudi and Lăți, as also any other language of the same kind could be in common usage denoted by the simple term Präkrit; but in his opinion, the speech current in the Maharastra is known as the best Prakrit; in it
1 Nitti-Dolci: Les Grammairiens Prakrits, Paris 1938, pp. 15f.
2 Nitti-Dolci : Les Prākṛtānu sasana de Purusottama, Paris 1938, see pp. 11, 13, 14.
3
Nitti-Dolci: Les Grammairiens etc. pp. 42f.
4 अभि पाउअकव्वं पढिडं सोर्ड च जेण आणीत कामस्स तत्ततर्त्ति कुणंति ते कण लज्जति ॥ २ ॥
5 Act I, after the 8th verse, the prose passage:
प्राकृतभाषी संवृत्तः । etc.
6 Natyaśastra ( Bombay 1894) XIII. 25f.::
दाक्षिणात्या च पाञ्चाली चौडमागधी ॥ अत्राह प्रवृत्तिरिति कस्मात् उच्यते । पृथिव्या नाट्यदेशवेपभाषा चारो वार्ताः ख्यापयतीति प्रवृत्तिः, प्रवृत्तिश्च निवेदनैः । etc.
7 P. L. Vaidya; Avanti, Vikrama-smrti, pp. 450-58, Ujjain Samvat 2003. Purusottama defines Avanti thus : अथावन्ति ॥ महाराष्ट्रीशीर सेन्योरैक्यम् in his Prakṛtānusāsana XI. 1.