Pravachansara

SR No.: 010843
Original Sutra Author: Kundkundacharya
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Manilal Revashankar Zaveri Sheth
Publication Year: 1935
Total Pages: 595
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 48 MB

Page 139

کده
CXXIV.
mutual borrowing, but prove a common heritage of both. These things clearly explain the AMg. elements in Jaina S'auraseni. The strong S'auraseni colour must have been due to central Indian influence; and, as the Digambaras continued their literary activities in the extreme South, their dialect could remain immune, at least for a long time, from the onslaughts of Mähäräṣṭrī. That the Digambaras were partial to S'auraseni is also clear from the manner in which they enriched the Kannada vocabulary under Prakritic influence: and when we see forms like sakkada samskṛta in Kannada, we are tempted to say that it was S'auraseni grammar that helped them to transform Sk. words and then to import them into Kannada.2 Further, the Sk. influence on Jaina S'auraseni can be easily explained by the fact that the Jainas, in the south, were soon driven by circumstances around to adopt Sanskrit ; and we find that Jaina authors like Samantabhadra, Pujyapada, Anantavirya, Akalanka and others cultivated chaste Sanskrit. This strong inclination towards Sk. and the absence of the reservoir of the AMg. canon brought Jaina S'auraseni under Sk. influence. The S'vetambaras in the North could not show much influence of Sk. on their Prakrit, because they constantly studied their canonical works and post-canonical ones like Nijjuttis and Curnīs, all in Piakrit, which were sufficiently large in bulk; and moreover they took up Sk. rather late. Just as the Jaina S'auraseni is influenced by Sk., so the Sanskrit used by Svetambara writers, because of their partiality towards and constant study of their texts in Prakrits, is greatly influenced by Pk. idiom; and that is why we find non-Sanskritic elements in many of the S'vetambara Sk. works. The conspicuous absence of Des'i words in Pravacanasāra, possibly indicates that the Jaina S'auraseni was nourished, or rather preserved, in the extreme South, isolated from the growing varnaculars of the Aryan tongue in the North; and further, the South Indian vernaculars like Tamila, Kannada etc., perhaps phonetically, or due to small stock of vocabulary in early days, were inadequate to give loan words etc.; while the AMg. canon in the north was being nourished on parallel lines with the growing vernaculars and hence the possibility of more Des'i words etc. therein. I would call these early Jaina S'auraseni works as the Pro-canonical texts of the Jainas.
PRAVACANASARA:
JAINA S'AURASENI AND JACOBI'S PRE-CLASSICAL PRAKRIT.-Now remains one point as to the relation of Jaina S'auraseni with the pre-cla al Prakrit postulated by Dr. Jacobi. Mahārāṣṭrī, as its name possibly ind, had its cradle in Maharastra, though it is difficult to define its boue the beginning of the Christian era. It was from the region of its binat it must have spread into Northern India. It does not appear in the dramas of Bhasa, but, by the time of 'S'ūdraka and Kālidāsa, its place appears to be "recognised for verses. This comparatively late appearance of Mahārāṣṭrī in literature does give rise to a question as to what possibly might have occupied
at
1 See Chatterjee: Origin and Development of Bengali Language, pp. 60-1.
2 The apabhrams'a-prakarana, chapter VIII, of the Kannada Grammar, S'abdamanidarpana of Kes'iraja, gives rules of corrupting Sk. words; these rules remind us of similar ones in Prakrit grammars, some of which are special to S'auraseni.
3 Dr. Jacobi: Bhavisatta Kaha von Dhanapala pp. 81*-89*.