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A CRITICAL STUDY
The above illustrations are picked up at random, and there is no pretension to an exhaustive study. Apart from the large number of Sanskrit loan words, this loka-bhāṣa shows many words used in Prakrits; and some of the particles are the same as those in Apabhramsa. The pronouns and verbal formations of the Apabh. stage have undergone a great deal of change which is natural and unavoidable in the evolution af spoken languages. Some changes are just a matter of shifting pronunciation: kahau>kahau, dajjhamto >dajhato, mokkalijjai>mokalajyo, sakkai>sakai, etc. Rajasthani and Gujarati are more lucky than any other modern Indian language because of their rich heritage of earlier stages of the language; and a careful study of the texts, from century to century, would certainly demonstrate the evolution of these languages through Prakrit, Apabhramsa and post-Apabh. stages of the Middle Indo-Aryan.
The Sanskrit and Gujarati Dhurtakhyānas cannot be judged as original contributions like their Prakrit counterpart; they definitely indicate, however, that the performance of Haribhadra did appeal to subsequent generations; and, as they stand today, they are useful aids to understand and check the Prakrit text of Haribhadra.
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6. Dhurtākhyāna and Dharma-parikṣā
We come across a pretty large number works called Dharma-parikṣā (Dp.). Most of them are not critically examined as yet. It is Amitagati's Dp. that has been exhaustively studied, and it can be accepted as a representative of Dp. texts for all practical purposes. Vṛttavilāsa, Padmasagara and others have mechanically followed Amitagati's Dp. By the discovery of Harisena's Dp. (Samvat 1044,-56A. D. 988), which was written 26 years earlier than that of Amitagati (Samvat 1070, -56A. D. 1014), it is clear now that Amitagati is not the creator of the plot of Dp. Amitagati tells us that he composed his work in two months: no doubt, he is a gifted didactic poet with a flowing Sanskrit style; but he does not mention his predecessors. Harişena, however, frankly says that the Dp. which was formerly composed by Jayarama in Gatha metre is now composed by him in Paddhaḍiyä metre. Unfortunately Jayarama's Dp. has not come to light so far. Harişena's Dp. is in Apabhramsa; there is no conclusive evidence to establish that Amitagati solely followed Harişena; the plot of the story, adopted by both Harisena and Amitagati, is remarkably identical; what Hariṣena says would indicate that almost all his material was present in Jayarama's Dp.; and Amitagati's Sanskrit expression betrays Prakritisms in narrative portions. All these facts go to indicate that Jayarama's
1 See my paper 'Harişena's Dharma-pariksa in Apabhramsa' in the Silver Jubilee Number, Annals of the B. O. R. I., vol. XXIII, pp. 592-608.
2 N. Mironow: Die Dharma-pariksa des Amitagati, Leipzig 1903.
3
The Sanskrit text with Hindi translation has been published by Pannalal Bakaliwal, Bombay 1901; another edition giving the Marathi translation of Pt, Bahubali Sharma has appeared lately, Sangli 1931. One feels the necessity of a critical edition of Amitagati's text.
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