________________
3
the PC. and a Gujarāti translation of the same in 1888 A.D., and C. H. Tawney, famous for his translation of the Kathāsaritsāgara entitled the 'Ocean of Story', rendered it into English in 1901 A.D. No study of medieval Gujarāta, political or cultural, is complete without a study of the PC. As stated by the author himself at the very outset, in composing the PC. he has incorporated the material that he acquired from the i.e., the tradition handed down by religious elders. As a specimen of the Prabandha form par excellence, it gives a large number of historical dates, a feature not common in Skt. literature. Its language is a fine specimen of simple and expressive colloquial Skt. which might have been current among the educated classes in those days. This is also suggested by the fact that in medieval Gujarāta the performance of Skt. plays was very popular and people used to go in large numbers to witness the same. 2
In this vocabulary of noteworthy words from the PC. words peculiar to the Māru-Gurjara language, cases of back-formations, important Jaina technical terms, rare and obsolete words and vocables not frequently used in Classical Skt. have been recorded. Equivalents from old and modern Gujarāti and from other cognate languages have been noted where-ever possible. Quotations from Old Guj. texts etc. also have been occasionally given with a view to show how the same or almost the same vocable is used both in Guj. and Skt.
It was not possible to include in this vocabulary sanskritised forms of the idiomatic phrases prevalent in the regional language. The grammatical peculiarities also have been pointed out incidentally where-ever it was relevant to do so, while discussing the meaning of the vocable in question. 3
The references in the vocabulary are to the pages and lines in the text of the PC. edited by Muni Jinavijayaji and published in 1933 A.D. as No. 1 of the Singhi Jaina Series. Besides, the following works have been used in these studies:
Bloomfield, M.,
Desai, M. D.,
Dwivedi, Pt. Hajārīprasāda,
'Some Aspects of Jaina Sanskrit', Festschrift Jacob Wackernagel (pp. 220-230), Gottingen, 1923.
fan, Pt. 1, Bombay, 1926.
Prabandha-cintāmaņi (Hindi translation), Singh Jaina Series No. 3, 1940.
2 In case of numerous plays we have clear historical evidence that they were performed on particular occasions. Vide Sandesara, B. J., franst (Guj.), pp. 50-70 : ' गूजरातमां संस्कृत नाटक '.
3 We acknowledge with thanks the valuable help rendered in this work by Śri J. S. Pade, Superintendent, Manuscript Section, Oriental Institute,
