Higher Education and Research in Prakrits and Jainology

Author(s): Gokulchandra Jain
Publisher: Sampurnanda Vishva Vidyalaya Varanasi

Page 23

i! The Sattakas, which are written hundred per cent in Prakrit, are being taught through Chaya. Editions of Sattaka like Kappüraman jari are appearing with Chāyā, aod the Sanskrit exposition and Hindi translation adopt the Chāyā only.
Even the Pāli and Prākrit inscriptions and Apabhramsa portions in the selections are presented with Chāyā.
These books are taught in the universities as text books at PostGraduate level. As a result in the new generation the young scholar of Sanskrit is kept deprived of the rich cultural heritage of the classical languages. Their knowledge becomes very limited in a closed compartment. Ultimately a great deal of hatred to sister classical languages is generating. An earnest student, not even a scholar, can think why the great poet like Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, Sriharşa, Bhavabūti, Rājasekhara and others did not compose their dramas entirely in Sanskrit ? Why they composed so much portions in Prākrit ? What for the great Ācārya Bharata Muni prescribes different Deśabhāsās or Prakrits to be used in dramas ? Why all the great writers of Poetics like Mammața, Ānandavardhana, Dandi, Kuntaka, Jagannātha, Vishvanātha and others have quoted so many Prākrit verses in their works ? Could they not find apropriate examples in Sanskrit literature ? And they may find a reply to themselves that none of the great writers was lacking in any classical language. They wanted to depict composite culture of our country, otherwise how the proverb could come out •Literature is the mirror of the Society'. It is lack of the knowledge on the part of the teacher that he deprives his students from a good deal of knowledge of our cultural heritage. The student may specialise in any branch of classical languages, but if they are put in a watertight compartment from very beginning, they can never be in a position to understand the literary, linguistic and cultural value of the classical languages and the close tie wbich they have to one another.
Attention of every earnest scholar working in the field of any branch of classical languages should the drawn to this matter of great concern. In Ănandasundri Sațțaka the poet says,
पाखंडो ण महं तिदिक्खइ विडो सीलाइ विज्ज जडो । जं जं जस्स सुदुल्लहं खिदिसु सो तं तं मुहा दिई ।