Jain Journal 1992 01

SR No.: 520105
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1992
Total Pages: 48
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 12

Ya-sruti in Prakrit
Satya Ranjan Banerjee
Y'a-śruti1 is a vital phenomenon in Prakrit including in all its dialects, but in Ardhamägadhi its presence is sharply felt. The very word s'ruti denotes that it is meant for pronunciation and not for writing, and therefore, y'a-śruti would be lighter than the original pronunciation of ya-kāra. This lighter pronunciation is said as laghuprayatnatara. Though y'a-śruti is one of the vital features of Prakrit, it is not always present in all the Prakrit texts printed so far. The editors of the respective Prakrit texts face enormous difficulties in editing their texts with regard to y'a-śruti. Some manuscripts ( Mss) of the same text have it, and others do not, while in some cases the y'a-śruti is not used at all. Hence the difficulty to solve the problem. The present paper is an humble attempt to review the position of y'a-śruti, so that scholars may get a clue in editing a Prakrit text.
Y'a-śruti has been discussed by the Prakrit grammarians. But as the Prakrit grammarians are divided into two distinct schools, an Eastern and a Western, their treatment on y'a-śruti is also not the same. Hemacandra (1088-1172), a grammarian belonging to the western school, in his Prakrit Grammar (I. 180) has prescribed y'a-śruti after a and a only, but in his commentary under the same sutra, he has further added that y'a-śruti is also occasionally noticed after i as well.' His text runs thus ;
a-varno y'a-s'rutiḥ, I. 180
1 The symbol y' is used to indicate y'a-sruti in order to differentiate it from the semi-vowel y.
2 For the divisions and descriptions of the two schools of Prakrit grammarians see S. R. Banerjee, The Eastern School of Prakrit Grammrians, Vidyasagar Pustak Mandir, Calcutta 1977.
3 In my book, The Eastern School of Prakrit Grammarians, I have discussed the problem of y'a-sruti from the point of view of the two schools of Prakrit grammarians (pp. 100-103). Here I have incorporated those ideas freely. But I have not used any inverted commas here to indicate that. Moreover, I have revised some of my earlier ideas, and added something more for understanding the development of y'a-sruti.