Mahapurana of Puspdanta

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

Page 53

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DEŚYA WORDS FROM THE MAHĀPURĀNA
may be of Indo-European though not of Sapskritic origin and may be found, with slight rariations, in the spoken dialects of other IndoEuropean races. A small proportion of them is of non-Indo-European descent and may have been obtained from the language of the people who were inhabiting the country before the advent of the Aryans into it. In Hem acandra's desi, a few recent borrowings from Persian and Arabic are also included as they might have become current in the language of the country some centuries before his time". I
He has given a glossary which includes those words which Hemacandra considers as Deši at the end of the text. He had added another index which includes all words considered by other lexicograpbers but derived from Sk, by Hemacandra in the Desinämamālā or in his grammar. He has given English rendering of all the Desya expressions of Deśināmamālā . In certain cases he has tried to suggest derivations to the Deść words,
He has also given at the end an index of Dhalvādeśas from the Dešināmamālā and Hemacandra's grammar. Lastly, he has given a list of the interjectional and other particles found in the above mentioned works of Hemacandra.
Amrita Row in his article, “The Dravidian Element in Prakrit" gives Dravidian affinities of a few Deśī words from the Deślpāmamālā of Hema. candra. He says that while several provincialisms given in the Dešināmamala can be traced back to Dravidian origin, some go back to Persian. He gives a few examples in support of this."
G. V. Tagare in his "Historical Grammar of Ap.", Poona, 1948 gives the following views regarding Desi 3 : "The term 'deść, as applied to words is different in implication than when applied to a dialect. 'Desi bbāsā' is generally the spoken language of a particular province whether it be Mabārāştri Pk. or Ap. or one of the N.I.A. language. Deši as applied to a word implies a word non-derivable froin Sk., expressing thereby the limits of the philological studies of the author who classes it thus. These words are found in Pk., Ap, and NIA. The identification of Desi 'with non-Aryan element in IA is a hasty conclusion of Caldwell and his followers, as the problem is yet to be adequately studied by scholars with sound grounding in IA., Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic Philology." 1. Dešinamamālā, Ramanujaswami, Introduction, p. 11. 2. See Indian Antiqary, vol. XLVI, 1917 pp. 33–36. R, Caldwell, H. Gundert, F. Kittel
and T. Burrow have made notable contributions in appraising the Dravidian loan-clement
in Indo-Aryan. 3 Şce Historical Grammar of Ap., Tagare G. V., p. 7.