Bhagavana Mahavira and his Relevance in Modern Times

Author(s): Narendra Bhanavat, Prem Suman Jain, V P Bhatt
Publisher: Akhil Bharat Varshiya Sadhumargi Jain Sangh

Page 26

MAHAVĪRA AND PRĀKRIT DIALECT
P. L. Vaidya
What is Prākrit, is the first question in the mind of every body. My answer to it is that Prākrit is the oldest and natural language of Indian people, spoken by all from their childhood, out of which Sanskrit, the polished language of the cultured classes has developed. Some may feel that this is a startling statement made to magnify the importance of the Prākrit language. Far from it, there are evidences available to prove my statement : and they are called from the oldest and most reliable works in Sanskrit itself. If you take the Mahābhāşya of Patanjali (2nd Century B. C.) you find the words like goņa and goņi which mean a cow are mentioned by Patañjali, the great grammarian and champion of Sanskrit, who asks his listeners not to make use of these words, as they are Apabhramba, degraded, and as such unfit to be used by cultured classes at least on sacred occasions like the performance of a sacrifice. But words like goni, goņā, goņa were so popular and current among the people, that completely banning their use became impossible, and so they made a rule, recorded by Patañjali himself or by his immediate predecessors that one must not use such words at least on sacred occasions; yajña-karmaņi nāpabhțmśitavai. Later classicists like Bhartshari went a bit further and enunciated a theory that Prākrit words, so numerous and current among the vast population, are incapable of carrying any meaning by themselves, but they do have a meaning through the medium of Sanskrit only. To make the point clear, they mean to say that words goņa, goņi, goņā do not convey to the listener the meaning of a cow or bull directly, but only through the medium of Sanskrit. Their equation is thus : goņi, gau. I do not think it requires any elaboration to prove that the natural