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 64

3 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE ARDHAMĀGADHI ĀGAMA TEXTS AND THE PLACE OF THEIR COMPOSITION
The nature of the Ardhamāgadhī language of the Jaina Agama texts is not uniform. This is known to all scholars. And, it is also wellknown that with the passage of time and due to migrations, changes occurred in the original Ardhamāgadhī language. Inspite of this situation, even now there are such linguistic evidences in these Āgama texts, on the basis of which it can be determined that the composition of the Ardhamāgadhi Agama texts took place in Eastern India, and that even now one finds therein numerous elements of the language of the Ashokan period, which have survived somehow in their unmodified form. (1) The Characteristics of the Ashokan Language in
the Ardhamāgadhi : (A) Use of ‘ahā' for 'yatha, and of ava' for yávat’:
Generally, the initial y'changes to j'in the Prakrits, but the usages with ahă and ava for yatha and yåvat, respectively, are often found in the Ardhamāgadhī, as for instance:
ähattahiyaṁ (yäthätathyam) or ahāttahiyam (*yāthătathiyam), which is the title of the 13th Adhyayana of the Sūtrakṛtānga. If this title was to be in Prakrit, it would have been jahātaccham (see, Pischel, 335); ahāsutam (yathāśrutam)- Ācārānga 1.9.1.254; ahākadaim (yathākstāni) - Sūtrakstānga 2.5.761.
Such usages are often found in the Ardhamāgadhi Āgama works. Pischel has quoted twenty such examples from the Āgama works in his Prakrit Grammar. The works from which he has quoted, and the examples of 'ahā' and 'āva' he has given are as follows :
Acārānga - (a) ahākappañ, ahānupuvvie, ahāriham, ahāsuhumań, ahāsuyan, ahātiritta, ahākadam, ahāsaccam, ahāparijunna; (b) āvakahań, āvakahãe, avanti, etc.;
Sūtrakstānga - ahākammāņi, āhākadań; āvakahā, etc.;