Jain Journal 1996 04

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

Page 11

BANERJEE : ȘAȚKHANDĀGAMA AND SAURASENI
109
this -d- is retained in some dialects (say, in Saurasenī). And this simple instance of Hemacandra is sufficient enough to prove that wherever in any sūtra of Hemacandra we come across a rule of intervocalic-d-, that-d- must not be elided in a dialect, say, Sauraseni. In all these cases the evidence of manuscripts is not a strong proof to accept the reading in Sauraseni with the elision of -d-. So if any text is full of this type of readings (where this type of elision is found) that text should be considered as erroneous, because this is again principle of grammar or linguistics.
In the Șatkhandāgama both the elision and retention of intervocalic -d- are found. ii) Intervocalic -th-, -dh-changing into -dh-.
In a similar way another phonological feature which is strong enough to make Sauraseni distinct from the others, is the sound dh.
iraseni, the intervocalic -dh-is retained. This is not elided, nor is it reduced to -h- as is done in the case of Māhārāştri. Not only that, even the -th- is changed to -dh- in Sauraseni cf. tāthā>tadhā (%); kathayati>kadhedi (%) and so on.
This rule of Saurasenī is very often violated. In most of the editions of Sauraseni texts, if not all, this sort of confusion is regularly found. In this regard scholars are divided into two : one group of scholars thinks that the retention of -dh- or -th-> -dh- is not as such a very distinctive feature of Sauraseni. To them -dh- and -h- are mutually interchangeable. As a result in most of the texts where Sauraseni passages are found this type of interchanges between -dh- and -hare also found. The other group is of opinion that the retention of -dhand the change of -th- into -dh- are distinctive features of Saurasenī, and as such, this should be retained in the text. As a result, this group of scholars wants to correct the Sauraseni passages where -his retained by changing it into -dh-.
In the works of Kundakunda and even in the Satkhandāgama this phenomenon is found. And naturally scholars do not categorically say that this is not possible in Sauraseni. Though it is difficult to remove this sort of traditional belief, scholastic approach should be free from any kind of dogma.
If we look at the problem historically we can say that this retention of-dh- and the change of -h' or -th-into-dh- is definitely a distinctive feature in Sauraseni. The country Surasena was situated in the midland (Madhyapradeśa) which is regarded as modern Mathura. In