Mahapurana of Puspdanta

Author(s): Ratna N Shriyan
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 47

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DEŚVA WORDS FROM THE MAHĀPURĀŅA
words which are derived from Sk. but possess a new meaning or those which are formed in an unusual manner are also reckoned among the Dests”) The two types have been first separated by Hemacand prehend them under one name 'the foreign speech element'. ?
“ Most of the Deši appear as petrifactions of the older literary records and comparatively a small portion seems to have been granted a long duration of existence."
Jacobi was the first scholar to distinguish between Apabhraṁsa and Dest. He says that there cannot be total identification between Deść and A pabhramsa words; since if the two were identical in the Bh. the number of such Deść words, which form only 5% of the total number of 4,000 words of Dešināmamālā, would have been far more greater. So it is not possible to equate Apabhramśa with Deśabbāsā. 3 He defines Apabhramsa as a poetic speech (i. e. Dichterssprache) which is shaped from the liter. ary Pk. with the adoption of the inflections, pronouns, adverbs, etc. and so also a limited portion of the existing stock of vocables of the popular speech.*
Besides, Jacobi has detected some words of Telugu origin in Bh. He has also examined the vocabulary of Bh. in order to make an approximate of the relation of the Deśīs with the Indo-Aryan dialects.
P. D. Gune calls Desya or Deśt as "country words ". He says although it could be shown that some of these words are real Tadbhavas, in the main they are words of other than Sk. extraction. He then gives a few examples of words which according to him are wrongly put down by Hemacandra as Deśīs. He further says that some of the words collected by Dhanapāla and Hemacandra are clearly Dravidian.
In the Introduction to Bh. of Dhanapăla, Gune gives a detailed acco. unt of Apabhramsa and a short note on Hemacandra's Grammar and his Deśīnāmamāla. He says that Hemacandra has included under Desis what does not deserve to be there. In support of this statem a list of words from Desināmamālā and tries to trace those words to Sk. He further says many of these words are coined by Pk. literary men and poets for their purpose. He also feels that a vast majority has yet to be traced to their source.? 1. See Introduction to Bh. $ 10. 2. See Ibid S 10. 4
Ibid S 13; Journal of Asiatic Society vol XXII, no. 1, pp. 25-26. 4. Intro. to Bh. § 12. 5. See Jacobi, Intro. to Bh. $ 10. 6. Gune, Introduction to comparative Philology, p. 221. 7. Bh., Gune P. D, Intro. p. 66,