Ang Sahitya Manan aur Mimansa

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Suresh Sisodiya
Publisher: Agam Ahimsa Samta Evam Prakrit Samsthan

Page 329

300: Anga Sahitya : Manana Aura Mimansa
opines on the origin of Prakrit is thus that its basis (prakstiņ) is the natural language of intercourse of all beings and it is not regulated ac- . cording to grammar, it is called Prakrit because it is derived from this language or is itself the same. Or it may be that Praksta stands for prakkrta—created before, in earlier period (pūrvam). So it is called Prāksta.
The Prakrit of the Jain canon or Arşa, i.e. Ardhamagadhi is the language of Gods—ārisavayane siddham devānam addhamāgaha vāni. Accordingly Prakrit is the language that is easily understood by children, women etc. and is the basis of all languages. Like rain wa-. : ter it had one and the same form in former times, but it became diversified on account of difference in locality and grammatical modifications and has come to be known as Sanskrit and other language mentioned by Rudrata. So Sanskrit and other languages have been formed or developed from Prakrit. Like Buddhist, as they considered Magadhi as their own-så mågadhi müla bhasa, the Jains has Ardhamagadhi as the same.
In the Nātyaśāstra of Bharata (17.48) Ardhamagadhi is mentioned as one of the languages.
magadhyāvantijā pracyā śūrasenyardhamāgadhi/ bahlika dākṣinátyä сa sapta bháså prakirtita//
Kramadiśvara is the only grammarian, who formulated any sutra for Ardhamagadhi-maharastri miśrar dhamagadhi (5.98), that Ardhamāgadhi is a mixture of Mahārāstrī and Māgadhi.
In Linguistic point of view, Ardhamagadhi is an important part of Prakrit as well as in the Middle Indo Aryan language. MIA being the part of Indo Aryan which is developed from Indo European through Indo-Iranian, Ardhamagadhi has a direct relation with Indo European.
Sound System of Aranamagadni
The sound system in the Amga literature is based on the characteristics of Ardhamagadhi which does not carry any change from that of prakrit in general.
Vowels-a, a, i, i, u, ü, e and o
Hemacandra, in the very first sūtra of his Prakrit grammar mentions about a term alokátâ in the vștti which denotes that in Prakrit the vowels like r. ř. !.!, ai and au have no existence. So in the Ardhamågadhi of the Amga literature we cannot have any exceptions