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आचाराङ्ग
Indo-Aryan. The Prakrits are almost entirely based on artificial generalisation of the second phase of Middle-Indo-Aryan and stand in the same relation to the latter proper as classical Sanskrit stands to Vedic.
The author of our presents book, Dr. K. R. Chandra, has taken a clue from both these scholars and many more too, and endeavoured to tread a new path of a syncretic viewpoint of describing the language objectively and tried to examine how far the rules of the traditional grammars apply to Prakrits in general and Ardhmāgadhi in particular. Taking his clues form old word-forms preserved in the palm-leaf manuscripts, the readings whereof are recorded in some of the critical editions of Agamas and cūrņis of Jainism, and also from the fact that Mahavira who preached in Ardhamāgdhi was almost a contemporary of Buddha from chronological point of view, and not far removed in distance in point of geographical region of the sojourn for preaching, and from his logical inference that Pāli, the mother tongue of Buddha could not be far removed from Mahāvira's original mother tongue, Ardhmägdhi, Dr. Chandra has embarked upon the task of discovering genuine original features of the text-portions of edited Agamic works. His comparative study of traditional grammars is ultimately targeted at finding the original features of the language in which Mahāvira actually preached. It is to this end that he has discussed his subject in fifteen chapters and beginning with Bharatamuni and the genesis of the Prakrit tongue in general, and then deliberating on the changes of initial and medial consonants, vowels, he has tried to discover two forms of the Ardhmãgadhi, one ancient and other of medieval ages, and has proposed or suggested lines on which the sofar-critically-edited Jaina Agamic texts are now required to be reedited. Although his views on the 'yoni' of Prakrit are hardly convincing, his discovery has far-reaching implications, which are likely to be instrumental in raising new controversies inspite of their basically sound academic foundation. Dr. Chanda deserves our sympathy for embarking on a highly sensitive project, and also our encomiums for the academic courage he has exhibited in propounding his new discovery.
Ahmedabad.
Jain Education International
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Dr. N. M. Kansara
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