Tulsi Prajna 1990 03

SR No.: 524561
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1990
Total Pages: 74
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 58

SOME PROBLEMS
OF
MAGADHI DIALECT
Jagat Ram Bhattacharyya*
[Magadhi, one of the dialects of Prakrit, belongs to the middle period of Indo-European languages, so it is intimately connected with the Old Indo-Aryan, mainly with the Vedic and partly the classical Sanskrit, and remotely with the Indo-Iranian and still more remotely with the Indo-European languages. Thus most of the characteristic features of Prakrit including dialects and sub-dialects are inter-related with Old Indo-Aryan, Indo-Aryan, and also with Indo-Emopean. The author here treats this problem historically. All the Prakrit grammarians from Vararuci (5th-6th Century A.D.) to Märkandeya (17th Century A.D.) are not unanimous in depicting the characteristic features of Magadhi. They differ in minor as well as major points. The Sanskrit texts where Magadhi passages occur, do not always help in determining the correct features of a language. Standardization of a language is difficult to maintain with regard to the Magadhi passages. Here the author evaluates them historically to remove the discrepancies as found in Prakrit grammatical treatises.
-Editor]
Magadhi Literature
Literature in prakrit language (including its dialects) is vast and varied. Chronologically it started in the 7th/6th century B.C. at a time when Jainism was getting its ground by the propagation of Lord Mahāvīra. Though we do not find any literature as early as 6th/5th century B.C. but that is still regarded as a starting point of prakrit literature, because Mahavira preached his doctrine in a popular language known as Ardha-magadhi at that time (addha-magahie bhāṣāe dhammaṁ āikkhai—samavāyanga). Though the literature composed in AMg. was completed long after the nirvāṇa of Mahāvīra, it is still regarded as the earliest specimens of prakrit literature It is more or less accepted now a days that AMg. literature consisting of forty five books was completed between 4th/5th century AD similar way Sauraseni (=Saur) literature, one of the dialects of
In a
Lecturer in the Dept. of Prakrit, JVB