Ardhamagadhi kosha Part 1

Author(s): Ratnachandra Maharaj
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 7

INTRODUCTION.
1. Need and Value of an Ardha-Magadhi Dictionary:
All those who have occasion to study the ancient scriptures of the Jains will welcome this Dictionary. Especially will this be true of laymen who are not deeply learned in the ancient language of the Jain church, and also of those who are starting the study of ArdhaMagadhi, whether for the purposes of philology, of philosophy, or for the general history of Indian thought and religion. Such have had to depend on Commentaries and detached Glossaries dealing each with one particular text. A further justification for the enterprise lies in the hope that it may furnish useful material for a more comprehensive Prākrit Dictionary embracing all the known dialects of the Middle stage of the Indian language, which has come down in various forms from Vedic ages to the Indo-Aryan languages of to-day. The spelling of MSS. varies and in order that a student or editor may be able to see what forms are found in other passages and are recognised as correct he needs a Dictionary with references to the texts. That is what this book proposes to supply for ArdhaMāgadhi. Further study may lead to the correction of many forms, but it is to facilitate such study that this work has been undertaken. 2. Inception and Compilation of the Dictionary:
In 1912 Dr. Luigi Suali announced his intention of preparing a Prākrit Dictionary, (Z. D. M. G. 1912 p. 544 ). Mr. Kesarichand Bhandări of Indore had sent a list of words to Dr. Suali, who returned it when his work was interrupted by the Great War. Mr. Kosarichand Bhandāri then persuaded a Jain priest Satāvadhāni Pandit, Sri Ratnachandraji to take up the work of making a Dictionary of the Jain Prākrits. The Sūtras were indexed with the assistance of three other priests. For this they used their own MSS., and Băluchar printed texts ( see below ). In 1920 my pupil and