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DESYA WORDS FROM THE MAHĀPURĀNA
The words in the Deśīnāmamālā are arranged into eight Vargas according to the initial letter of the words. They contain in order, words beginning with the vowels, the gutturals, the palatals, the cerebrals, the dentals, the labials, the semivowels and the spirents. In each section words with one meaning are given first and then the homionyms. In each again, the words are arranged according to the number of syllables contained in them in the order of disyllabic, trisyllabic, tetrasyllabic and so forth. At the end of words of a certain number of syllables are added the Dhātvādeśas or the verbal substitutes which contain the same number of syllables. As Hemacaudra does not consider them as real desi-words, he does not include them in the verses which form the body of the work but adds them in the commentary along with particles and other words taught in his grammar. 1
The text of Dešinānamālā is written in Pk. Gathās containing the Deśī words with Pk. equivalents. Sometimes these Pk. equivalents are given in other Deśī words. The commentary explains each Desi word in Sanskrit, and contains also frequently discussious on doubtful forms and meanings. Gathās are composed by Hemacandra to illustrate the usages of Deśis explained.
Hemicaudra has inaugurated a new era in Pk, lexicography and the experiment made by him was really a success. He has excluded a large number of tadbhavas and tatsanas from his lexicon. In th: earlier Deśikośas both Dhatvadeśas and Deśtśabdas were mingled together. Hemacandra separated them and dealt with Dhātvadeśas in the IV Pada Sutras 1-259 of his Prakrit Grammar, and the Dest words in his Dešināmamala. He arranges the adeśas according to the initial letter of the Sk. root, e.g., kath-gam., etc.
In this connection we may note that Hemacandra held that the so-called Dhātvādeśas were in reality roots drawn from the stock of Desi vocables and that they were shown technically substitutes for Sanskrit roots with the simple object that they could, that way, be used to form verbal derivatives with the help of suffixes. ( Compare H. II. 174)
He also deals with the nipätas or deśt words under one Sūtra namely H. II. 174.
of the two available Desikośas, that of Hemacandra is undoubtedly more valuable for a knowledge of deść material. As stated before Dhanapala's kosa is of very little use as he mixes dest words with hoards of tatsama and tadbhava words. Hemacandra's work eliminates the other two classes of words to a great extent and gives a large number 1. Dešināmamālā, ed. by Ramanujaswami, Introduction, p. 6. 2. Dešināmamālā, Ramanujaswami, P. V. Introduction, p. 6.
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