Mahapurana of Puspdanta

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

Page 64

INTRODUCTORY
Introductory note: For the interpretation and elucidation of the data in this section collected from Puşpadanta's MP., NC., and JC., I have relied on the old g'osses in these texts, the observations of their editors, and old and modern Prakrit dictionaries and grammars. But these sources were helpíul for only a part of the material under study and there also to a limited extent. In numerous cases the meaning was to be gathered from occurrences elsewhere and in those cases where the words are treated by one or more of the above mentioned sources the meaning is either not satisfactory or suitable to our context. Again in numerous cases there is disagreement between the interpretations given by different sources. ? Hence my main task (in what follows) has been to compile and correlate the information on the words studied from diverse sources, to ascertain the meaning or even spellings and to remove misunderstandings and contradictions.
Abbreviations and Signs. abs.- absolutive. agent.-agentive. caus.causative. enl.-enlarged. fem.-feminine gender. fut.-future. G.-Gujarati. gl.-gloss in Ms. as noted by the editors of the respective texts. Hi.-Hindi. imp.-imperative. inf.-ipfinitive of purpose. Kan.-Kannada. Kon.-Konkani. M-Marāthi. Mal.-Malayalam. part.-participles. pl.-plural. p.p.-past participle. pres. p.-present participle. s.-singular. s.v.-sub verbo. S.-Sindhi. Ta.-Tamil. Te.-Telugu. Tu-Tulu. ?.-doubtful in form or sense. *.-reconstructed. N.-root. —; the hyphen has been used to analyse words into their roots and affixes; when a word is given with a hyphen at the end, it indicates merely the base form. > means-gives, is changed to. <means--is derived from." "- Double inverted commas are used for the quotations from the texts and" -single inverted commas for the English rendering.
Method of references. The figures given against the word under discussion indicate the Sandhi, Kadavaka and line respectively of the occurrence of the word in th: text. The references are to Vaidya's edition of Mo. References to the texts of NC. and KC., JC., PC. and SR, and Bh. are to the editions of Jalu, Vaidya, Bhayani and Gune respectively. The references to Karns., CMC., Vajjā., Lilāvai etc., are illustrative and not exhaustive. H. followed by 2 figures, shows the number of the Pāda and Sutra respectively of the 8th Adhyāya of Haima Vyakarana. The references are to Vaidya's edition. D. followed by 2 figures, shows the number of the Varga and the Stz., respectively of the Deśināmamālā.
2.E.Gwe find numerous cases in the Dešināmamālā edited by Ramanujaswami and
others wherein because of Hemacandra's ambiguous Sk. paraphrase, it has not been possible to pinpoint the meanings of Desi words like uccola-aalla ottharia Seto and the editors might have made a wrong choice.