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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2. ARCHAIC LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS IN THE
ARDHAMĀGADHI
We find, in the senior works of the Jaina Ardhamāgadhi Agama literature', some of the linguistic usages which have escaped the influence of the Prakrit languages that evolved in later period; they have preserved their archaic forms in tact. If these forms are compared with those of the usages of the Prakrits of the later period, it will clearly reveal that these escaped archaic usages prove the antiquity of the Ardhamāgadhi (in contrast to the later Prakrits, like the Saurasenī, the Mahārāștrī, etc.) and at times one cannot but avoid feeling that they are similar to the forms of Pāli usages, thus, vindicating the fact of their antiquity in support of which the following usages should be noted. (A) Additional matter Post-HIndi Edition :
Traces of the usage of Vedic !'(a) mostly in the Āgamic Texts.
Ācā.-dālima, āviliya, paripiliya, Sū.Kr.-, leluna vide Pischel 240, 304, 379, 592. This consonant is preserved in Pāli and has been inherited in some cases by other MIA. dialects and by some NIA. languages also. Modern Indian Editions have replaced '?' by l' or '?'.
This is a specific and crystal clear example of how a language undergoes transformation at the hands of editors of later period and of different regions. In the Sattasai (Saptaśatī) of Hāla which is edited by a Marāthī editor the Y' is available in a number of words because the editor is a Marāthī and in that language the syllable ?' is a part of its usage, whereas the same text edited by Hindi speaking editors does not have '?' and it is replaced by I' or ' '.
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