Jain Journal 1992 01

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

Page 17

162
JAIN JOURNAL
these vowels in the short and long forms. They are to be pronounced short when followed by a conjunct consonant. Both the long and short vowels are represented by the same character and the short vowels are only heard in pronunciation. In the same way, the vowel remaining after the elision of the consonants is always to be written as a but it has to be pronounced as y'a when preceded by a or i short or long. In the text of the Deśināmamālā Prof. Pischel has taken the trouble of correcting every a into y'a, when it is preceded by a or ā. I have allowed them to stand as they are rather than take the trouble of rechanging every such y'a into a, and changed a few others which have been left due to oversight in the first edition, although, as I have explained above it is not necessary to do so. I have done so for the sake of uniformity."16
Ramaswami's view seems to be quite logical and can go on a par with that of the eastern school of Prakrit grammarians. In the case of Pischel what happens is this that in the meantime his edition of Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar came out in two volumes (Vol. I, 1877, Vol. II, 1880). In the notes of his Vol. II (1880) under the sūtra I. 180 he remarks that y'a-śruti cannot be restricted to the Jaina Prakrit alone, but later on in his Grammatik der Prakrit Sprachen (1900) Pischel is more explicit than his notes under I. 180 in accepting y'a-sruti as a feature of Jaina Prakrit and sums up the whole discussion in the following manner.17
"In the place of the consonants that have dropped off a weakly articuted ya (laghu-prayatnatara y'a-kāra) is uttered, that is indicated in his Grammar by y'a ($ 45, C. 3.15; Hc I, 180; Ki 3.2.). Except in Mss written by Jainas this y'a is not indicated. Hc. I. 180 teaches that it comes in between a and 7 only, but he attests also piy'ai – pibati and I. 15 sariy'ā Pali saritā – sarit. MK fol. 14 refers to a quotation, according to which y'a-śruti occurs when one of the vowels is either an a or an i sound : anādāy aditau varnau pathitayyau yakāravad iti Pāțhas' ikṣā. In Kakkuka Inscription y'a is generally written only between a sounds as 1 say'alāna, 9 payā, 10 näy'a, manay'am pi (sic) 11 say'alam pi (sic) ; on the otherhand it is mostly wanting after an i sound. But the inscription is not uniform. Besides niy'a (9) stands nia (12), in 14 there is iy'a and in 13 ney'a naiva also. The oldest Mss write ya
16 Ibid., p. 2. 17 R. Pischel, Grammatik der Prakrit Sprachen, Strassburg, 1900, translated into
English by Subhadra Jha, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi 1957, § 186.