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Nalini BALBIR
MORPHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR DIALECTAL VARIETY IN JAINA MĀHĀRĀŞTRI
This paper is concerned with literary Prakrits. Hence the term "dialect " is understood as it is in Pischel's Grammatik : Ardhamāgadhi (= AMg), Māgadhī, Māhārāştrī, Apabhramsa are currently regarded as dialects.
The present study is based on two groups of works, the main dialect of which is Jaina Māhārāștri (= JM) 2. 1. The first group includes the niryuktis and bhāsyas which form the earliest stratum of exegetical texts on the Jaina Canon. Niryuktis are metrical commentaries, mostly, but not exclusively, consisting of lists of catch-words. One can say of them what L. Renou has written about the Brahmasūtras : "des notations concises de mots-clefs, avec une syntaxe rudimentaire, qui les rend souvent inintelligibles sans le secours d'une vștti ou 'glose” 3. They can also aptly be compared with the Pali uddānas, "sommaires versifiés", to quote Helmer Smith 4, all the more so since in both cases the brevity of style affects the grammar. The following material has been surveyed : the Ayāranga- and Sūyagada-nijjuttis; the Dasaveyāliya-nijjutti (= DasavN); parts of the Uttarajjhāyā- and the Oha-nijjutti (= UttN; OhN); the Bțhatkalpabhāșya (= BK Bh) and the Niśītha
1. R. PISCHEL, Grammatik der Prākrit-Sprachen. Strassburg, 1900 (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde I, 8) = Pi.
2. A standard description of JM is provided, for instance, in H. JACOBI, Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Maharashtri. Zur Einführung in das Studium des Prakrit. Leipzig, 1886 (reprint Darmstadt, 1967), p. XXI-LXIX: Jacobi's Māhāraştri is in fact Pischel's JM.
3. Sankara, Prolégomènes au Vedānta. Texte traduit du sanskrit par L. RENOU. Paris, 1951, p. IV.
4. Saddanīti. La grammaire palie d'Aggavamsa. Texte établi par H. SMITH, vol. IV, Tables. Lund, 1949, 5.3.2.1. (and 8.9.5); CPD II, 9 s.v. uddāna.
