Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 153

120
Pravacanasāra
the relation of this postulated pre-classical Prakrit with the Jaina Sauraseni? The so-called specialities of this pre-classical Pk. are practically found in Jaina Sauraseni, as we have analysed it from the gāthās of Pravacanasāra. The postulate of Jacobi has one disadvantage that the dialectal facts from Natyaśāstra will have to be accepted with caution; of this he himself is aware, and makes sufficient concession for Sanskritisms and scribal errors.1 The so-called antiquity of the orthography, hạ rather than nh, might be merely the scribe's habit of writing Sk. Comparing the dialectal stage represented by Natyaśāstra with that of Prayacanasāra, one is struck with close similarities; if Sanskritisms like visuska, bhramarā valī, sahasra, yuvati etc. are taken to be, and they are, chronologically late features imposed on the pre-classical Prakrit, then the Jaina Sauraseni, which exhibits comparatively less Sanskrit influence, might represent chronologically an earlier stage than that of Natyaśāstra. And I think that the dialectal characteristic of this pre-classical Pk. will have to be decided by a comparison of common verses between the Svetāmbara canon in AMg. and the Pro-canonical literature of the Digambaras, without ignoring, of course, the Pali parallels; and the results are sure to be reliable, because these two tracts of literature have been preserved independently and with a remarkable mutual isolation.
[p. 126:1 The cumulative effect of the dialectal stage of Jaina Sauraseni on the probable period of Kundakunda, the author of Pravacanasūra, is already touched upon above.
1 The Prakrit verses have been critically edited recently, see Indian Historical Quarterly
vol. VIII, iv.