Note on Hemchandras Abhidhanchintamani and Sanskrit Karmavati

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 10

१७६
अनुसन्धान-५४ श्रीहेमचन्द्राचार्यविशेषांक भाग-२
disciples of monks, not professional scribes but this element is probably not relevant anyway.
Although Hemacandra's record proves that the word was known in the 12th century, no record of it could be traced in the earliest available contemporary manuscripts, those on palm-leaf. But this absence has to be considered within a broader perspective: a word meaning "date" or "day" is not systematically mentioned in the colophons of these manuscripts. The general pattern is, rather: number-week day - adya iha + place name.!In the later phases, the date formula is expanded in full, and all resources of the calendar vocabulary are made use of consistently: for example, pratipad “the first day of the lunar fortnight”, pārņimā or rākā “full moon day”, or a less frequent term such as bhūtestā “fourteenth day of a fortnight” (see below Appendix “VS 1716"), when the actual date requires it. If the manuscript or inscription is written on a festival day, its name may be given.14 Synonyms for the names of the months and the week days are often handled skillfully with literary ambitions.15 The word k. is part of such a development. Its occurrences are much later than the palm-leaf manuscript period. But, on the other hand, the word has a
13. E.g.: samvat 1191 varse Bhādrapada sudi 8 bhaume adyeha Dhavalakke ..., samvat 1330 varșe Vaišākha sudi 14 gurau.... etc. 14. E.g. Vaišākha-sukla-pakse 3 aksayatrtiya dine. etc. See below Appendix "VS 1783” for another example. 15. See individual notes in the Appendix below. - Other rare names of months are recorded and discussed in the Sesasamgraha by Hemacandra, the Appendix to his AC, on which see Th. Zachariae, “Die Nachträge zu dem synonymischen Worterbuch des Hemacandra” (WZKM 16, 1902, reprinted in Kleine Schriften, Wiesbaden. 1977, pp. 471-502). ucchara for Vaišākha and sairin for Kārttika are two such examples (p. 479 n. 4 and p. 480 n. 1). Sanskrit grammars, especially that of Hemacandra, have special sutras regarding the formation of nouns or adjectives relating to the calendar: see F. Kielhorn, "Pausha Samvatsara”, The Indian Antiquary 1893, reprinted in Kleine Schriften. Wiesbaden, 1969, pp. 274-275.