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 83

THE ARDHAMĀGADHİ LANGUAGE OF THE PRAKRIT GRAMMAR OF HEMACANDRA
(3) chāge lah (8.1.191), as in chālo, châli; (4) sphatike laḥ (8.1.197), as in, phaliho; (5) kakude haḥ (8.1.225), as in kauhaṁ; (6) bhramare so vă ( 8.1.244 ), as in bhasalo; (7) yastyām lah ( 8.1.247 ), as in, latthi.
He had enough material for formulating independent aphorisms in the case of the Ardhamāgadhi as is evident from the examples he has quoted for the Arsa language. Apart from this he could have made a special statement for the initial 'n'= 'n', and could have formulated the sutras for the change of jñ, 'nn', 'ny' to 'nn', as has been done in the case of Māgadhī by him in a sūtra 'nya-nya-jña- ñjām ññah' ( 8.4.293). All these fall under the archaic linguistic process. Their change to the retroflex n'or 'nn'is also a later process of evolution. In the examples (except the Dhārvādeśa of the Fourth Adhyāya) given by Hemacandra himself, the occurrence of the initial 'n'and the initial 'n'is found in the ratio of 8:1, i.e., generally, we find only 'n'in the initial position; similarly, the 'nn' in the place of jñ, 'nn', 'ny'occurs more frequently while the 'nn' is comparatively scanty.
Similarly, a sūtra could have been formulated to state that the guttural and palatal nasals ( of the K-class and Cclass ) could be used with the respective consonants of those classes; in this connection, he states in his vrtti of the initial sūtra (8.1.1 ) that the nasals do occur in the conjunt form (with its own class); and, in 8.1.30, it is prescribed that when they occur jointly ( with their own classes), they are optionally changed to Anusavāra. In spite of this, among all the usages quoted" in Hemacandra's Prakrit grammar, mostly these conjunct nasals are used, and not the Anusvāra in them.
No Mention of Some of the Characteristics
The characteristics that are not at all mentioned in the Prakrit grammar of Hemacandra are as follows. Among these, some are of course much popular, and some have been preserved sometimes in the form of archaic usages.
66