Jain Journal 1992 01

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

Page 23

168
JAIN JOURNAL
"The various phenomena of Prakrit are met with sporadically also in Pali... One of these sporadical phenomena is the occasional elision of an intervocalic mute which is replaced by the hiatusfiller y or v: suva 'parrot' (beside suka) = s'uka ; khāyita 'eaten' – khādita ; niya 'own' (beside nija) = nija; sāyati 'tastes' (beside sādiyati, sădita)=svädate."34
This y'a-s'ruti is also noticed in some of New Indo-Aryan languages.*5 In numerous tadbhava words of NIA, y'a-s'ruti can be traced. For example, Skt. s'ükara > Mg. s'üara > Beng. s'üyara ; Skt, modaka > M. moaa > Beng moya ; piano > Beng piyāno ; Skt. sitārāma > Hindi siyarāma ; Skt. śrgāla>M. siāla>Guj sīyāla ; Skt pāda > Marathi pāya.
The above survey shows that y'a-s'ruti is a natural and logical consequence in language, and in Prakrit this is reflected after the elision of some intervocalic single consonants. If that be the case then what should be the position of y'a-s'ruti in Prakrit.
In general, y'a-s'ruti can be avoided in writing in Prakrit, instead the remaining vowels (udyrtta svara), whatever they might be, can be retained. As it is a matter of pronunciation, let the readers pronounce it the way they like it. This should be the general practice of the editors of Prakrit texts. But in the case of Jaina canonical literature, the y'a-s'ruti can be retained (if it is found in the Mss), maintaining the dictum of Hemacandra (I. 180). It appears to me that as Hemacandra is a Jaina, he has prescribed it for Jaina literature mainly, though without mentioning it categorically, instead he has made it a general feature of Prakrit. Though it is a natural and logical result of Prakrit, its indication in writing can be avoided for the sake of uniformity in Prakrit texts. And that is the case with the non-Jaina Prakrit texts like Gatha Saptas'ati, Setubandha, Gaudayaha, Usāniruddha, Karpūramañjari, Anandasundari, and so on, where no y'a-s'ruti is noticed, not even in their Mss. In the case of Des'ināmamālā, it was Pischel who corrected the Mss for the sake of y'a-s'ruti. As Hemacandra is a Jaina,
34 Pali Literature and Language tr by Batakrishna Ghosh, University of Calcutta
Calcutta, 1943, pp. 81-82, § 36. 35 S. K. Chatterjee, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, University
of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1926, $ 170 p. 338f. G. A. Grierson, Introduction to Maithili Dialects, Calcutta 1909, pp. 9-11, 24; Pandit Hazari Prasad Dvivedi, 'Hindi y'asruti ki Pariksa', Madhuri Vol 9, 1932, 527 f; A. N. Upadhye, Lilavai, p. 11.