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

Page 63

ARCHAIC LINGUISTIC ELEMENTS IN THE ARDHAMĀGADHI
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time these grammars were composed, and hence they might have not been mentioned. As a result, all those usages that possessed -ya' and ya' in the senior works must have been changed to those with '-a' and '-ā'. See, the Indices to the MJV. Editions. See. The Indices to the MJV. Edns. of the Ācārānga and the Sūtrakstānga. The Examples given in the sections 3 and 4 are from the Comparative Grammar of the Prakrit Languages by R. Pischel. Cf. S.M.Katre, 'Prakrit Languages and their Contribution to Indian Culture, (1945), p.60. Cf. Pischel (508 and 517) for these usages. ibid. This is the date of the First Redaction at the Pātaliputra Council which is believed to be held in the second decade of the fourth century B.C. See, Taina Sahitya Kā Brhad Itihāsa, vol. I (Vārānasi, 1966), Prastāvanā, p.51by Pt. D. D. Malvania. Agamaprabhākara Muni Sri Punyavijayaji clearly held that the general elision of the medial unaspirate consonant and change of the aspirate one to 'h' was not so much prevalent in the comparatively Senior Texts of the Ardhamāgadhī. This has already been mentioned by us in the initial chapter of this work. And, Pt. Bechardas Doshi, too, held that the original Ardhamāgadhi language gave prominence to the consonants, but in the course of time the (medial) consonants disappeared (or were elided). Cf. ‘Prāksta Mārgopadeśikā' (4th Edn. 1947), p.29.
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