Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

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Amrita
normal Apabhramsa, in which the majority of the existing works are written, is much more akin to Māhārāstrī and shows no trace of this change. But its oldest dialect the Vrācada Apabhramśa is found to contain this change to a considerable extent. It is true, that Hemacandra nowhere makes a distinction between the various dialects of Apabhramśa, but his treatment shows unmistakable signs of the presence of this dialect. Further he does admit that there are dialects in Apabhramśa as is evident from the remarks in his Kāvyānuśāsana. Some of his Sūtras and the verses quoted herein illustrate the Vrācada dialect. Rudrata's Apabhramśa verses3 of this dialect also contain this change. From this fact it appears that this change has affected the Apabhramsa language in its early period.
From all the evidence adduced it is very difficult to say that this. change is the peculiar and distinctive feature of Sauraseni Prākrit. In fact, in the early stages of all the Prākrits we have no trace of it. It must have originated after the date of Aśvaghosa and the Prākrit inscriptions of the second century A.D. This change is a natural result of the wider change of softening the hard consonants, and it must have been working in all the Prākrits which have a tendency to soften. It is later than the origin of Sauraseni and affected it at a later stage in its development. Soon after, the development of Saurasenī was stopped and the grammarians took it to be the special feature of that language. It has also affected the Māhārāstrī Prākrit in its primitive stage, but for various reasons that Prākrit was not stereotyped until the further change of dropping the intervocalic consonants has affected it. Naturally the grammarians postulated the rule of dropping t and other stops for Māhārāstrī. The few traces that are found in that language are to be taken as the remnants of the earlier stage of that language. Its continuance in a particular locality where Saurasenī was current has further affected other languages which came in contact with it.
The Change of th to dh :- Another phonetic change in this language is that of th to dh (Va. 12, 3; Hem. 4, 267; Mār. 9, 24; Rt. 2, 1, 5). The history of this change is practically the same as that of the previous one except that in its later development th was changed to h. This change is further not found in Māhārāstrī at any stage in its development. Another question that arises in this connection is about the treatment of d and dh which are found in the original words in Sanskrit. Hemacandra, if interpreted correctly, appears not to allow them, and rules that they should be treated exactly as in Māhārāstrī. This should make us drop d and change dh to h. Most of the modern scholars have taken this implication of Hemacandra as