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The Date of Kasāyapāhuda
K. R. Chandra
The available canonical orāgama literature inherited by the Svetāmbara sect originally was composed in Ardhamāgadhi; whereas that of the Botika/ Ksapanaka of northern Indian and its derivative the Yāpanīya of Southern India had inherited the āgamas which were composed in Sauraseni. The surrogate or iso-āgamic works of the Digambara Church, too, had employed Saurasenī Prakrit. The earliest works of this pro-canonical literature are the Kasāyapāhuda, the Satkhandāgama, and the works of Kundakundācārya. There is a general trend among the contemporary Digambara authors to place Gunadharācārya, the author of theKasāyapāhuda, earlier than Kundakundācārya, the author of the Samayasāra, the Pravacanasāra, the Pañcāstikāya, and a number of other works.
In this article, the language of the Kasayapāhuda and of the Pavayanapāhuda olim Pravacanasāra is analysed with the view to finding out which work can be assigned an earlier date on the basis of the main linguistic characteristics.
Linguistic Data I Phonological Changes
Kasāyapāhuda (=KP)
Pavayanasāra (=PS)
Number
Percentage
Number
Percentage
(i) medial -t
(including -to,-tā, -ti, te,-tu)
O
0.80
84.8
94.63
=-d- =-y- or -a-
413 74
15.2
4.57
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