Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 86

BOOK REVIEWS
Mikal Austin Radford
SHERIDAN COLLEGE OAKVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA
Restoration of the Original Language of Ardhamagadhi Texts. By K.R. Chandra. xxiv + 104 pp. Prakrit Jain Vidya Vikas Fund, Vol. 10, Ahmedabad, 1994.
As a methodological exemplar, Dr. K. R. Chandra's Restoration of the Original Language of Ardhamagadhi Texts is an outstanding contribution to both Ardhamagadhi and Jaina textual scholarship. Ardhamagadhi is a variant of Prakrit and was instrumental in the early development of the Jaina tradition.
Although the oldest Jaina Canonical literature, such as the Acaranga I, the Sutrakrtanga I and the Rsibhasitani, were originally composed in an archaic form of Ardhamagadhi, it is Dr. Chandra's contention that over time the original idiom of these texts suffered so many alterations that the primary linguistic forms are almost unrecognizable. For example, some of these alterations included the interchange of jaha for jadha, aha for adha, and "the older Prakrit form of the Sanskrit yathu as adha (compared with the atha of the eastern Ashokan inscriptions in which the initial y- of the Sanskrit yatha is lost)."
79