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Introduction
The present study deals with a collection of fifty short poems, which are composed in a language that represents the earliest form of the Late MIA. These religious songs relate to the final phase of Indian Buddhism. They were written sometimes in the 9th - 10th Cent. A.C.
The present effort has the same objective and the same basic asumptions as the foregoing effort, viz. the restoration of the text of the Carya-giti-kośa (=Cgk.). The point of departure in the long tradition of studies on the Cgk. is Kvaerne's 'An Anthology of Buddhist Tantrik Songs', which has critically considered and used whatever is valuble in the earlier studies, besides making its own valuable contribution and thereby becoming a landmark. It is hoped that the present effort, eventhough unconventionally speculative to a degree will be assessed and judged by its success in removing some cobwebs and throwing light on some obscure or evidently corrupt passages of the Caryās.
The original language of the text of the Caryās seems, in the case of many a passage, to have been, in numerous places, Sanskritized or regionalized during transmission. Earlier sounds and forms came to be substituted by their later developments and unfamiliar words came to to be replaced by familiar words. The song character also allowed some freedom with the original text resulting in verbal alterations.
The moderninzation of the original language relates to a few sound changes, inflectional endings and lexical items. Sinplification of the earlier cluster with lengthening of the preceding short vowel is a well-known characteristic of the NIA. stage as distinguished from the MIA. stage. In the transmitted text of the Dgk. and Cgk. we find numerous such cases. So also -b for -v, loss of -h- in certain forms etc. The ablative singular marker -te, genitive singular marker -r- for earlier -h-, present third person singular ending -a (for the earlier -1), past passive participle in -1-, absolutive participle in -i (in
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