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 79

THE ARDHAMĀGADHI LANGUAGE OF THE PRAKRIT GRAMMAR OF HEMACANDRA an archaic Prakrit language. The instances are as follows. 1. The change of Initial ‘y-' to 'a-':
The sūtra (8.1.245) is āder yo jah, i.e., initial y-changes to i -. but ‘ārse lopo 'pi' is also mentioned, as for instance, ahakkhāyani (yathākhyātam), ahājāyan (yathājätam). This same process is found in the Ashokan inscriptions also. The process of changing initial y-to ;-belongs to a very late period (Mehendale, p.274)'. This change occurs generally in the case of the indeclinables yathā and yāvat in the Ardhamāgadhī. 2. As an example under the sutra arse dugullaṁ (8.1.119) the word dugulla (duküla) is quoted. Here, instead of the elision of medial -k-, we find it voiced to -g-, while the point sought to be illustrated is the change of vowel and duplication of consonant (duallaṁ, duūlam). But in the example of the Ardhamāgadhī, there occurs the change of medial -k-to -g- instead of its elision. The process of voicing is older than that of elision. We get once the instance of such a change, as in loga’(2.7) in the place of loka’in the Jaugada Separate inscription of Ashoka belonging to the Eastern region. We also get such an instance of the change of medial ‘k’to 8', as in upāsaka = uvāsaga, in an inscription of Khāravela. 3. Along with this, there is shown the change of medial k to g in the vștti on the sūtra 8.1.177 which prescribes the elision of the medial unvoiced consonants, as for instance, egattam, ego, amugo, sāvago, āgāro, titthagaro, and it is added that there are a number of such instances in the Arşa. All this is the process of voicing, and it became prevalent in many such words of the Jaina Sauraseni and Jaina Mahārāştrī, under the influence of the Ardhamāgadhī. According to Mehendale', this process of the voicing of the unvoiced consonant spread to other regions from the Eastern one. According to Pischel, too, the medial-k-changes to -g- in the Ardhamāgadhi." In fact, should not this change have been mentioned by Hemachandra as a peculiarity of the Arsa in his Prakrit grammer ?
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