In Search of the Original Ardhamagadhi English Translation

Author(s): K R Chandra, N M Kansara, Nagin J Shah, Ramniklal M Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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In Search of the Original Ardhamāgadhi
K.R. Chandra
his edition he has written several articles and books on the problems of finding out the original language of the Āgama text. The present text i.e. the edition of Acārānga, is an outcome of that long persistent labour. In his edition he has discussed again quite a lot on how to edit a Jaina Agama text, and what type of reading is to be selected for the restoration of the original language of the Ardha - Māgadhi texts. It goes without saying that he has laboured much on this point, and from that point of view, he has been successfui in presenting the text faithfully. Linguistically also this text will help the scholars to find out different readings of the printed texts. I can vouchsafe sincerely that this text will furnish us lots of material for the future generation to work on.
It is true, indeed, that there might be some scholars who may not like all his arguments as applied to the text. Some of the readings he has selected for the main body of the text can be altered with the readings of the text given by him in the footnotes. The reading of the very beginning of the text may be altered as per reading of the other texts and some may feel that some of the readings may not represent the original language of the text. For example Chandra's reading sutaṁ me ausante(?) nam can be altered as sutam me āusaṁ tenam, in this sort of reading the difficulty is with the euphonic combinations santena. This sort of sandhis is not very happy in Prakrit. Moreover, tenaṁ is a very common word used in most of the Ardhamāgadhi canonical texts and this is not to be separated by any way, particularly when it is an adjective to the next word Bhagavata evam akkhātam. In some of the commentaries of the Agama text where the words tenaṁ kālenaṁ tenaṁ samayenam are found, some commentators tried to separate te and sam and so also käle and naṁ and take some sort of explana. tions which did not go on a par with the original intended meaning of the text. However, as far as the general notions are concerned, certain remarkable features of this edition can be mentioned.
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