Mahapurana of Puspdanta

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

Page 52

NATURE OF DEŚYA ELEMENT
lars of different provinces confirms tbis veiw of their Aryan origin. If a. small residuum of dest words cannot be thus traced to Modern IndoAryan vernaculars but are found in the Non-Aryan languages alone then these may be regarded as borrowed from the latter. No final conclusion in this matter can be drawn until the investigation into the origin of the dest words on the above method is completed. Indeed in the present state of our knowledge the boundary line separating the tadbhava and dest words is a shifting one and with the advance of knowledge more and more deść words are being discovered to be tadbhavas.
Ramanujaswami has revised the Deśināmamālā edited previously by R. Pischel in 1880. In the introduction to his edition of Desināmamāla he has discussed the problem of dest with suitable examples to illustrate his points. He has expressed his views regarding the deśya words as follows:
"Deśya words are those which do not appear to have any connection with Sanskrit in accordance with the rules laid down in Prakrit grammars and hence show no distinction of praksti and pratyaya, or in other words are underivable from Sk. but are current in the language from times immemorial and are freely used by poets in their composi. tions; e.g. pottar, üro etc... The Deść words which do not obey laws are underivable from Sk. and have to be learnt from the usage of the speakers of the language and from kośas compiled therefrom.”3
He further says that the Deśināmamālā contains a certain number of words with an un-Aryan look which show undoubted relationship with languages other than Sk., and a number of them show close resemiblance to words in the Dravidian languages. He traces some of them to Tamil, Telugu, Kannada etc. He also says that Hemacandra's Desi includes not only Sanskritic words but also non-Sanskritic, both Indian and foreign.
Regarding the conception of the expression Desi he says, “Many of the Dest words are of Sanskritic origin; but owing to the large aniount of corru. ption they have undergone during the many centuries of their use, they do not conform to the phonetic laws recognised by the grammarians or in other words their connection with Sk. is obscured. Some others again
1. See Līlāvai, Upadhye, A. N., Notes, p. 329. 2. See Dešināmamālā, Banerji, M. latroduction, pp. xxxi-xxxii . 3. See Desināmamālā, Ramanujaswami. Introduction, p. 7. 4. He has given parallels or derivatives from Dravidian languages to 104 Deśya words
from Desināmamālā. 5. Dešināmamālā, Ramanujaswami, Introduction, p. 8,
6