Comprehensive Critical Dictionary of Prakrit Languages Volum 01

Author(s): A M Ghatage
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Page 23

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arrangement of the dictionary. Some of the more important ones are discussed here and the practice followed in the dictionary is clearly indicated.
It was only
(1) The writing of a in the place of a vowel left over (uderita) with the loss of an intervocalic consonant is briefly called fa. The rules laid down by Hemacandra in this respect are neglected by the writers of the MSS. and also by modern scholars while editing the works in AMg. JM JS. and Ana. Pischel who tried to follow them in his edition of the Desināmamālā by discarding the MSS. evidence on the ground that the explicit teaching of a grammarian must be given due weight against the chaotic writings of the scribes Hem. (Gr. 1. 180 lays down that whenever an intervocalic consonant is dropped, the remaining vowel will be pronounced as a form of which is to be articulated very lightly. provided the surviving vowel is orar and is preceded by or T. and not otherwise. कगच जेत्यादिना लुकि सति शेषः वर्णात परो लघुप्रयत्नतरangfanafa By the general practice of the grammarians stands for both and air unless followed by an indicatory. Among the eastern grammarians, it is only Märkandeya who refers to this phenomenon (2.2). This is regarded as a writing convention of the Jain scribes. In the purely non-Jain works like get. रावणवह गउडवह लीलावई and other Jater works like कंसवध उपानिरुद्ध and some of the सहकs no यश्रुति is used, In the case of 733 when all the MSS come from Jain Bhandaras and use throughout, the new edition of Prof. Suru drops this in all cases while others like Prof. Patwardhan and Dr. Upadhye continue to use it even in non-Jain works when the MS. show it. The s. me holds good of a large number of Sanskrit dramas written by Jain and non-Jain writers. This practice is thus taken to be a writing method and is treated as such and no phonetic value is attached to it. Hence also the complete neglect of the restrictions imposed on its occurrence by Hemacandra.
consists of two vowels coming together but without forming crasis. and forming two distinct syllables. This will inevitably give rise to a glide sound between
the two and yet will not have a full consonantal value. The possible sequences of this nature will involve the use of a front. a back or a central vowel at both the
places. The i-like glide will thus assume three phonetic values, one which is the same as a clearly articulated
- sound, the other between two front vowels becoming
hardly audible and a third, a fleeting like sound lightly pronounced It is only when the preceding and the following vowels are central ones, do we get a uglide to mark the syllabic boundary and Hemacandra's rule correctly describes it as a The other procedure to keep the syllabic boundary will be to use a g'o tal step which Sanskrit does not recogn'se as a sound of the language That a similar situation does not arise in case of is due to the fact that its pronunciation has already shifted to fricative sound. That the scribes did not take note of such a fine distinction in case of the written records is quite underThus a form like af or as found in a work like standable and they used the same symbol for both. aaft should not be judged as an archaic form but merely as a writing convention for # or #.
Another writing convention is found in the MSS. of bch the canonical works in Ardha Magadhi and the post-canonical works in Jain Maharastri. It consists in writing the letter in place of many originally different consonants, and is called aga on the analogy of afa and af, but does not belong to that category. Most editors refer to it as a peculiarity of the MSS. they use, and being convinced that it has no phonetic validity, they do not take the trouble of recording it fully. Thls lack of evidence in the recorded readings makes it difficut to judge it correctly. This writing of a is fairly well-represented in the edition of agafeet in both its Khandas and most Curnis on the canonical works use it extensively. Schubring has very carefully The nature of this --. like a similar use of -. noted the writing of this a in his edition of the work is given by tradition as having a very light articulation, as against the indistinct pronunciation of referred to far and allows us to judge its nature to some extent An analysis of its usage gives us the following by Bharata in 17. 13. Speaking phonetically we may describe the first as a glide and the second as a slightly result. Compared to Sanskrit this written a corresponds fricativised voiced stop in the intervocalic position. This to different original consonants like as in कुसिक चक्रवात चक्रवाक, सावन श्रावक, कालियउक्कलित will help us in understanding Hemacandra's rule precisely and ascertain its validity. Here a glide of a palatal कालिकाल्कालिक, in place of ग as in पत्रात प्रयोग. in place colour is involved as occurring between two vowels of च as in विमोतितो विमोचितः वातिक वाचिक अणुत्री ति which is due to the loss of single consonents in that अनुवीधि, सृति सूचि कदानि कदाचित मं तेति मोचति; in position Hemacandra's condition is two-fold, reference place of as in fa गज भारदात being made to the immediately preceding vowel and then in place of as in a az, at at, vowel which follows it. The situation thus created जति यदि जणवत जनपद,
भेदाति भेदादि अकोविता -
=