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SOME PRAKRIT PASSAGES OF CANDRAGOMIN'S LOKĀNANDA-NĀTAKA AS RESTORED FROM
THE TIBETAN VERSION
DR. BISWANATH BHATTACHARYA The original text in Sanskrit and Prakrit of Chandragomin's1 (c. fifth century A. D.) Lokānanda-nătaka' has not been brought to light as yet. This drama is known to us through its Tibetan version which has been printed in the Tibetan script in the different editions of the Bstan-Hgyur4.
.: Now, the purport of the present paper is to offer to a learned reader some select samples of the Prakrit passages, both prose and verse, as restituted from the extant Tibetan translation of the drama in question.
1.
The name Candragomin has been transliterated in Tibetan as << Tsan -dra: -90.-mi >> and translated into Tibetan as << Btsun -pa:- (=Pūjya-) Zla -ba (- Candra) >> -Pūjya-Candra > Candragomin).
It has to be noted in this context that in transcription and loanwards from Sanskrit in Tibetan the <c>, <ch>, <j> and
<jh> sounds of the original are changed respectively into the affricatives, <ts>, <ths>, <dz> and <dhz>, Hjig: –rten: - (=Loka+) kun: -tu: -(=tā-) dgan --baħi. (=- nandam) [>Lokānandam] zlos. —gar (nātakam) zes. ---bya –ba (nāma) >Lokānandam nâma nāțakam]
2.
A maiden attempt to offer a reasonable restoration of the lost Sanskrit portions of the Lokānanda-nātaka is being made by the present writer. For the details about the names, appellations, lineage, place and creed of the dramatist, and the plot and its source, and an appraisal of the technique of the drama an interested reader is referred to the present writer's original research paper in English entitled <<Candragomin's Lokānanda-nataka >> published in the VIDYA, C-Languages, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad -380 009, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, August, 1980, pp. 145-157.
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