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INTRODUCTION
has been prepared by Mr. Banarsi Das Jain, M. A., is appended to this introduction. Mention may also be made of an Ardha Magadhi Reader by the same scholar, which is being published by the University of the Punjab.
7. Material included in this Dictionary:
About 50,000 words have been collected by indexing 49 works. These include 11 Angas, 12 Upangas, 7 Paiņņas, 6 Chedasūtras, 4 Mūlasūtras, the Nandisutta, the Aņuogadara, and the Oghaniryukti. That is nearly the whole of the Svetambara Canon and all important supplementary works.
8. History and peculiarities of Ardha-Magadhi:
The Language of the Jain Sutras is called Ardha Magadhi. The Sutras state that the Blessed Mahavira preached the Law in that language, and regard it as the basic language from which others are derived. The Indian Grammarians call the language of the Sutras "Arsam," i.e. the language of Rishis.
Pischel in his Prakrit Grammar, $16, quotes the following passages:
Samavayamga-sutta 98. Ovavaiya-sutta 56. Paņṇavaṇā-sutta 59. Hemacandra I. 3, IV. 287. Premacandra Tarkavagisa's commentary on Dandin's Kavyadarśa I 33. Namisādhu on Rudrata's Kāvyālamkāra 2. 12. Vägbhaṭa's Alamkāratilaka. I. 1.
From these passages Pischel shows ($17) "that Arsa and Ardhamägadhi are identical, and that according to the tradition the language of the old Jaina-suttas was Ardha-Magadhi, and indeed as Hemacandra's example from the Dasa-veyäliya-sutta (633-19) shows, not only prose but also Poetry."
Why was it called Ardha-Magadhi? The chief characteristics of Magadhi are rasor lasau, la and sa instead of ra and sa and e in the nom. sing. masc.; thus Ramo becomes Lame. Ardha-Magadhi
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