________________
(i) dialectal, (ii) orthographic and (iii) selection of readings.
2. Problems in editing a Prakrit text :
(i) Dialectal
As we have said above, it is a very difficult task to determine the dialect of a Prakrit passage. While editing some Prakrit texts, even scholars like Jacobi, Pischel were puzzled in determining the question of language of the text.
Hermann Jacobi has assumed a Jaina Maharastri dialect of those texts which are non-canonical on the one hand but written by the Jainas on the other. In a similar way Richard Pischel has postulated a Jaina Sauraseni of those Jaina texts which are written in Sauraseni. At the time of Pischel, of course, no Digambara canonical literature was published and so he had no comment on them. A few books by Kuncakunda and Umāsvāmi were available, and on the basis of those books he had established the Jaina Sauraseni. But recently the earliest canonical literature of the Digambara Jainas were published first in 1939 and then completed the whole lot in subsequent years by 1960 after which most of the earlier editions were being reprinted. The first of the series is Şarkhandagama which is written in Sauraseni dialect, but again influenced by the older Ardha-Magadbi and the Maharastri as well, giving it a name which is called by Pischel as Jaina Sauraseni, The assumption of these two dialects-Jaina Maharastri and Sauraseni is based on a notion that probably these two dialects are different from the normal features of the language as embalmed and treasured up by Prakrit grammarians. But how far they differ from Maharastri and Sauraseni is a moot question and how far these differences are systematic to form a separate dialect is another problem. These are the questions which normally puzzle the readers of Prakrit. With regard to the Inscriptional Prakrits and Pali, the question is not severe, but with the Prakrit and Apabhramsa and partly with the early literary specimens of some modern Indo-Aryan languages, the problem of readings is acute.
Although inscriptions are written documents and we have more
Ole
204/JAINTHOLOGY
