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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
Introduction.
21
consonant'). I have, therefore, retained it in the present edition of the Kalpasútra.
2) Some MSS. change e and o before two consonants to i and u. This is due to the absence of signs for the short e and o in the Devanagarî alphabet, whence the following dilemma arose. If e or o was written, the quantity of the vowel was neglected, for a vowel preceding two consonants is always shortened, and e and o are signs of long vowels. If, on the contrary, i oru was written, the quality of the sounds ě or 7 was insufficiently rendered. I have written e and o when the Samskrit prototype has the diphthong.
3) Some MSS. write nn, while others prefer nn (see Hem. I, 228.). I have usually adopted the spelling of the majority of the best MSS. in each case.
4) Occasionally, initial ş is written in some MSS., compare Hem. I, 229.
5) Whether a consonant between two vowels should be retained, or be replaced by its substitute, or be dropped, seems to have been left to the choice of the transcriber of the Jaina books.
6) One MS. of the Kalpasútra (India Office Library 1599.) writes bb for vv, and b for v initial in single and compound words, e. g. bibaddhaņa for vivaddhana, Mahabîra, etc. This perculiarity is probably due to the fact that the MS. was written in Eastern India.
7) The letters 3 and 3 (u and o) are frequently interchanged. But this has no reference to the sound, because u and o are never interchanged when preceded by a consonant, except, of course, in the case under 2). The MSS. A and B of the Kalpasútra very seldom make mistakes about the signs in question.
The diversity of orthography just described is, perhaps, due to different grammatical schools. I have carefully noted, below the text of my edition, all various readings, except those which fall under heads 6 and 7. But I have, nevertheless, not been able to decide which are the oldest and most authentical spellings. Having examined a good many paper MSS., I am convinced that they will not give us the clue to the correct orthography of Jaina Prâkrit; an examination of the oldest MSS., written on palm leaves. will, perhaps, lead to a more satisfactory result. But I think it more probable that there never was one fixed system of orthography adhered to by all Jaina writers of any time. For other Prakrits also, e. &. that of the cave inscriptions and the vernacular dialects of modern India, frequently spell the same words in different ways.
1) In the Prakrit inscriptions of the caves in Western India, y is the substitute of j boforo i also, e. g. pavayitila and pavaïtika = pravrajitiko.
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