________________
IMPORTANCE OF JAIN LITERATURE FOR
THE STUDY OF DESYA PRAKRIT
Dr H C BHAYANI
[1]
The term desī (alternatively, desya, deśaja etc ) has been used in several distinct but interconnected meanings Ancient Indian works on poetics defined Sanskrit and Prakrit as languages of literature The latter comprised a cluster of literary idioms (Sanskrit-dependent, considerably 'artificial and highly stylized) like Mābārāstrī, Apabhramśa, Paišācı, Sāurasenī, Māgdhi etc Sanskrit and Prakrit had to be learnt through formal instruction, and manuals of grammar and dictionaries were periodically composed by way of text books Prakrit grammars provided a set of rules for Sanskrit poets for turping Sanskrit into Prakrit of different varieties On the basis of phonological difference and derivability from Sanskrit, Prakrit words were traditionally into three categories Tatsama, Tadbhava and Deśya Those words which had the same sounds and meaning as their corresponding words in Sanskrit were Tatsamas, those which had modified sounds but the same meaning as their Sanskrit correspondents were Tadbhavas, those which were not derivable from Sanskrit ie not accountable either as tatsamas or as Tadbhavas and hence considered to be substitutes for Sanskrit words of correspondingly same meanings were Deśya words
The Deśya class of words, traditionally used in literary works, were listed with meanings in special lexicons, like Hemacandras Rayanārali (also popularly known as Desināmamāla), which itselt refers to numerous earlier similar compilations The
