________________
ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS (Prakrit viņņaveři, Sanskrit vijñāpayāmi), at the side of lagauń, jugaui.
Forms like the latter ones are rare in, if not alien to, even later Apabhramsa, such as represented by the Apabhramsa portions of Somaprabha Sūri's Kumārapāla-pratibodha' (not to speak of the earlier Bhaviyasattakahā' and the Harivamsa-purāņa by Dhanapāla, or of the Vasudevahiņdi), and characterize the earlier stages of Middle Gujarati rather than Apabhraṁsa, gaining more and more ground in Modern Gujarati.
All those phonological phenomena, it is true, cannot be ascribed with certainty to the poet himself, as for some of them (just as for occasional “ya-sruti"), clerical influence might be responsible. Yet a number of them are testified as doubtlessly genuine by metre, rhyme, as well as by the persistency of their occurrence. On this basis, the language of the poem can safely be defined as being either very late Gaurjara Apabhramsa, or, with more probability, early Middle Gujarati.
The mixture of archaic and recent forms, the numerous tatsamas, such as nikara, tāta, sampūraka, durita, tāraka, nāyaka, pāpa, tāpāpaha, sādara, çddhikara, kathina, hatha, ghata, lobha, rāga, bhoga, indra, pada, gati, mati, abhinava, mada, bodha, dayaka," the frequent ignoring of Sandhi-rules,' even in compounds, such as in namira-sura-asura, sāra-upayāra, visaya-visama-amiya-bhara, Nami-aħntaram, all these peculiarities
(1) V. S. 1241. (2) Pre-Hemacandra.
(3) Probably earlier than 7th century (V. S.) xide M. D. Desai, Short History para 203.
(4) Kesavarima, p. 158, 181, 189, 221, 232, 236, and 265.
(5) General tendency of Middle Gujarati, stabilised in the modern anguage.
88
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
