Jain Journal 1990 10

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

Page 13

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is given by Hemacandra in his Prakrit grammar (pantham kira desitteti tu pathi-sabda-samānārthasya pantha-sabdasya bhaviṣyatiunder I.88). About the word mahilă, Hc. says that the i of mahilā becomes e making it mahela in Prakrit. After that Hc. adds in his commentary that mahela could also be a Sanskrit word like mahilā, and therefore the Prakrit word mahela may also directly come from Sanskrit mahelā instead of mahilā (mahilā-mahelā iti tu mahilā-mahelābhyam sabdabhyam siddham. under I.146). Mahila is recorded in MonierWilliam's Sanskrit-English Dictionary where he has quoted the uṇādisuffix (1.55) to derive it from the root maha (cf. mahilāropya the name of a city in the South). He has also recorded the word mahelā, as if, related to mahilā. Though these two words are found in Monier- William's Dictionary as well as in Hemacandra, these two words are not in great use in Sanskrit literature. The most interesting is the word mora 'peacock', which is a Prakrit word from Sanskrit mayūra, which has two forms in Prakrit mora and maura. In fact, mora is a further development from maura by euphonic combination. Hc. thinks that mora could be a Sanskrit word as well (mora-maura iti tu mora-mayūraśabdābhyām siddham under I.171). Monier-William has, of course listed this word in his Dictionary as a word given by Indian lexicographers. He has mentioned a word moreśvara (bhaṭṭa) as the name of an author. It appears that the word is of Prakrit origin incorporated in Sanskrit, and the origin of the word must be very late, the reason being that no author has used this word earlier. These are some of the words which indicate how far the Prakrit grammar is useful even for the study of Sanskrit.
JAIN JOURNAL
Prakrit grammatical treatises have given us characteristic features of several Prakrit dialects and sub-dialects. Excluding Maharastri, there are four main Prakrit dialects, such as, Sauraseni, Magadhi, Paisaci (including Culikapaisaci) and Apabhramsa, the last phase of Prakrit language. All the Prakrit grammarians have considered Maharastri, a Prakrit par excellence, as the standard Prakrit. The grammarians have not mentioned in their treatises that they are discussing the features of Maharastri, but from their indirect references, such as, śeşam mahārāṣṭrivat, we infer that the Prakrits, they have described, are nothing but Maharastri, otherwise their general term is Prakrit as atha prakrtam. About the dialects it can be said that they have given only those features which are departures from general Prakrit or Maharastri as the case may be, indicating thereby that the other features of Prakrit or Maharastri will also be found in other dialects as well. It is only from the Prakrit grammarians we know the characteristic features of dialects and sub-dialects.