Jain Journal 1968 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 64

208
JAIN JOURNAL
he had to exclude from this collection all desi roots though included by his predecessors in the list of dest words because he had treated of them in his grammar (1, 3 com) and the reason for his excluding such roots from the list of dest words and leaving them from Sanskrit roots by sub stitution is not his ignorance about their being dest but because it served the purpose of economy (1, 37 com ) With Hemacandra as with the Indian grammarians generally, brevity and the derivation of a form by rules by the shortest cut and by avoiding all roundabout processes though philologically correct and historically true, was the guiding principle Most of the rules in Indian grammars for substitution of one form for another illustrate this principle The substitution of 'bhu' for 'as', 'ghos' for 'ad', 'ga' for '1', 'neda' for 'antika', 'bolla' or 'jampa' for 'katha', 'muna' for 'ña', 'ohira' for 'midrā', 'kandotta' for 'utpala', 'chimchai' for 'pumscali' will show that such transformations are never meant for philological development of one form into another That in the exclusion of dess roots from Defināmamālā and their derivations by substitution in his grammar Hemacandra was guided by the principle of economy he has made clear in the commentary on the Dešinämantālā (1, 37 com) Similarly he includes many tadbhaia words in the list of desz words not because he was ignorant of their derivation from Sanskrit but because they were not current in Sanskrit dictionaries in the sense which they acquired in Prakrit Whenever a tadbhava word is found used in a sense different from that of the original sanskrit he gives a place to it in the list of dest words (1,9, 18 com) Sometimes even when the sense of a tadbhava word is the same as in sanskrit he includes it in his Dešinamamālā to popularise his work with those readers who consdider themselves masters of Prakrit, but are ignorant of Sanskrit (1, 21 com ) If Hemacandra has excluded some words that modern philology regards as desi and included many tadbhava words that any student of Prakrit even without St Petersburgh Dictionary at his disposal would refuse to call desi, he has done it not because of his ignorance but because he imposed upon himself the above restrictions in the selection of desi words to serve certain definite practical purposes
Inspite of the clear statement by Hemacandra about the latitude excrcised by him in the selection of words for his Defināmamālā many scholars have brought the charge against him of including many tadbhava words in the Desināmamála through ignorance Dr G Buehler writes as follows
"Hemdcandra, therefore, enumerates in his commentary on the Desisabdasamgraha a great many words which all or some of his predecessors had considered to be desis, but which he includes among the tadbhavas or tatsamas A student of Prakrit on the other hand who has