________________
Introduction 1
exclude such words, there remains & residue of them which are not derived from the Sanskrit source. We have to discover the nature of these unknown words, the value of the mathematician's x, as Mr. J. Beames has put it.
Before doing so, let us see how the Dravidian grammarians have classified the words in their languages which may help us in our enquiry. These too divide the words in their languages into the same three classes as the Prakrit grammarians, viz. tatsama, tadbhava and desya. Tatsama words are those which are borrowed from the Sanskrit language without any change in their form, as e. g. Tel. Rāmudu, vidya, pita ; Can. vana, dhana, vastra ; Tam. kamalam, kāranam etc. Here the words do not show any phonetic change except with regard to the final letters which follow the usage of the respective languages. Tadbhava words are those which undergo phonetic changes in their passage from Sanskrit into the Dravidian languages. Most of these changes are the same as those described in the Prakrit grammars or appear to be the continuations of those. The following are examples of tadbkava words. Tel. ākasamu ( Skt. 371413 ), megamu ( Skt. IT ), vankara ( Skt. 27), marudu (Skt. F ); Can. payana ( Skt. PM) bīdi ( Skt. at îi ) vīne (Skt. afv); Tam, outtam ( Skt. J5), catti (Skt. qf2), piccai (Skt. F#727). Words which do not belong to any one of the above two classes but which are current in the language of the country are called desyas. Examples are : Tel. ūru 'a town', méda "a storied house', illu' a house '; Can. mane 'a house', hola' a field', nela
the floor '; Tam, ür,' a town'manai' a house 'tarai ' the floor'. Deśya here means, therefore, words which have nothing to do or rather appear to have nothing to do, with Sanskrit ; and hence even borrowed words, only if they are not loans from Sanskrit, are classed as desya. Here the principle which the Dravidian grammarians followed is the same as that followed by the Prakrit grammarians; in fact the former imitated the latter. But there is this difference that whereas the Prakrit grammarians included certain Samskrtabhavas in the deśyas since they do not conform to the arbitrary rules laid down by them, the grammarians of the Dravidian languages classed all words which show the least resemblance to Sanskrit as tadbhavas. The Dravidian grammarians, too, are strangely silent as to the nature of these desyas. They say, like the Prakrit grammarians, that the origin of these words is wrapped up in mystery but they have been in use in the language of the country from times immemorial and are used by poets in their compositions.
On examining the nature of the desya words in Prakrit, it will be seen that they consist chiefly of words denoting the parts of the body, relationship, common birds and animals etc.; that is to say just the class of words which, philologists say, are not generally borrowed from one language into another, and in every case the form regularly derived from Sanskrit is found beside the desi word. We are, therefore, tempted to suppose that all the desi words are indigenous to the languages. It is now generally ad
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
Jain Education International
