Book Title: Nandisutt and Anuogaddaraim
Author(s): Devvachak, Aryarakshit, Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay
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composition. The works like Pindaniryukti, etc. seem to have been composed by the junior Bhadrabāhu who was a native of Pratisthānapura in the South.
Moreover, for the preparation of the recension of the Jaina Agamas three Councils of the Jaina saints were held at Pāțaliputra, Mathurā, and Valabhi. And the present Svetāmbara Agamas represent the Valabhi recension. This being the case, it is to be concluded that though the original teachings contained in the Agamas were delivered in Bihar, the final form in which they are before us has been established in Saurashtra.
When all these facts are taken into consideration it cannot but be declared that all the parts of India are, in one sense or the other, the place where the Agamas were composed. And keeping this fact in view, we ought to undertake a study of the language of these texts.
Language of the Āgamas The language of the Vedas is Sanskrit while the language of the Agamas is Prakrit. The reason for this is that Lord Mahāvīra and Buddha wanted their teachings to percolate among the people at large—and not among the élite only. The Vedas are a monopoly of the Brāhmaṇas, that is, no one else can understand them; in opposition to this, Lord Mahāvīra and Buddha proclaimed that knowledge should be easily accessible to all without any discrimination whatsoever. Moreover, they wanted to dispel the wrong notion that only a particular language should be used as the medium of knowledge and that a particular language is divine and pure. So, both these Arihantas insisted that their teachings should be written in the language of the people. As a result, the ganadharas wrote down the teachings of Lord Mahāvīra in the Prakrit language of their times. The śāstras call this language Ardhamāgadhi. The characteristic features of Māgadhi and Ardhamāgadhi languages enumerated by the grammarians are rarely found in the language of the present Acamas, the reason being that true to its nature the Prakrit language might have remained constantly changing. And it was indispensable that the language of the Āgamas should change as that of the people changes because the main objective behind writing the Āgamas in Prakrit, the language of the people--and not in Sanskrit, the language of the élite-was that the people might understand what has been written. Again, the Jaina religion which was prevalent in Magadha at the time of Lord Mahāvīra gradually spread out to the western and southern parts of India with the result that the influences of local dialects—which too were the languages of the people-entered into the structure of the Prakrit language of the
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