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PREFACE
The present work was prepared by way of a thesis and was accepted by the University of Bombay for the degree of Ph. D., in ArdhaMāgadbi in December, 1962.
In this volume I have made a humble attempt to study the Desya and rare material contained in the three Apabhraíśa works of Puşpadanta. I have also attempted here to study the character, scope and function of the Deśya element in Middle Indo-Aryan.
I have divided the present work into two parts. The first part consists of the Introduction which deals with the discussion of Desi in general and the collected Desya data in particular and of the conclusions derived therefrom. The second part presents all the Deśya and rare words under study with critical and comparative notes on their meanings and interpretations, Appendix I gives the Deśi and rare words exclusive to Nayakumāracariu and Jasabaracariu and Appendix II presents rare words found in the old glosses of the works under study. I have also given an alphabetical reference Index of all the words discussed.
For the sake of convenieace of reference the words in the Appendices are numbered in continuation of the words in the main thesis. Words given in Appendix II are marked with an asterisk in the beginning.
While preparing this work I have consulted the valuable contributions of seyeral authors. For my work I have used Mahāpurāņa and Jasaharacariu edited by Dr. P. L. Vaidya and Ņāyakumāracariu edited by Dr. Hiralal Jain. I have also made use of Desigāmamālā edited by Prof. P. V. Ramanujaswami and Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar edited by Dr. P. L. Vaidya. I have constantly consulted various other works, most important among these being the three volumes of Paumacariu edited by Dr. H. C. Bhayani and Karaka mdacariu edited by Dr. Hiralal Jain..
In the beginning I had the intention of quoting original passages from Various Apabh ramsa and Prakrit works in support of the interpretation of the words under study. But, later on, as the bulk of the work gret beyond expectation, I had to curb my temptation of including them. So also it was not possible for me to make use of Dr. Bhayani's "Studies in Hemacandra's Deśināmamālā (1965) as it became accessible to me when a large part of the present work was already in print.
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