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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THE STATE OF ARDHAMAGADHI IN VARIOUS EDITIONS OF THE JAINA CANONICAL (AGAMIC) TEXTS
stances in the manuscripts of the Ācāranga (1st SrutaSkandha) used by Schübring but he has scrupulously picked out in some instances the medial 't' (in words, case-suffix or terminations), as one would do with a fly fallen in butter, but in the edition of the Isibhāsiyāim he has not done so; the retention of 't' in it as analysed
in some chapters is as follows : (Chapter (Retained) (Sonant) (Elision) (Percentage No.)
of Elision)
d
32 O
2
19
0
29
14 12
21
(3)
For the Ācārānga, Schübring seems to have taken for granted that wherever the medial 't' is found, it is '-t-' variant (śruti) and hence to be thrown out, but he did not adopt this same rule for the Isibhāsiyāim. The elision of the other medial consonants, as in the case of - t- has not been adopted; sometimes 'd' = 't' is also found. This process of making them unvoiced is the stage that preceded that of elision. In the Isibhāsiyāim'd' = 't' has been preserved (yadi = jati 3.2), but in the Ācārānga such readings have not been adopted, although they were found in the manuscripts.
It seems from these facts that at the time of editing the Ācārānga he was under the influence of the rules of the Prakrit grammarians as stated in their works with reference to the later Prakrit, but at the time of editing the Isibhāsiyāim he did not stick to those rules and followed the proper system of adopting the oldest readings. (See the Ācārānga, I, ed. H. Jacobi, 1882) (4) Other editors have also adopted the readings with elided medial - t- as for instance :
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