Prakrit Vyakaranam

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Parshuram Sharma
Publisher: Motilal Laghaji

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Hemacandra in his grammar treats of six Prakrit · dialects,_viz., माहाराष्ट्री, शौरसनी, मागधी, पैशाची, चूलिकापैशाची and - अपभ्रंश. By Prakrit he understands माहाराष्ट्री which he considers as the base for all other dialects. He also refers to
Prakrit which is another name for Ardhamagadhi. He devotes the first three padas and major part of the fourth to the treatment of the principal Prakrit and the rest to other dialects.
The notes given here are not exhaustive, but I feel, are sufficient to guide an intelligent student with fair knowledge of the Sanskrit language. In the section on dialects other than the principal Prakrit they are more numerous, and the tabulation of the principal characteristics of the different dialects which the student is recommended to study more carefully, and my full and word for-word rendering in Sanskrit with an English translation of the Apabhramsa verses, would go a long way to help the student to master the subject systematically. I have however reserved fuller treatment of Apabhramsa and its dialects for another work: A Manual of the Apabhramsa Dialects with illustrative texts - which I have in preparation. I hope that this work would be out next winter.
I must make grateful acknowledgements to the soul of Dr. R. Pischel for the liberal use that I have made of his edition, the critical apparatus, the word-index and notes as also of his " Materialien zur Kenntnis des Apabhramsa." I should like also to acknowledge the help that I received from two of my pupils, Mr. A. Ñ. Upadhye, B. A. (Hons) and Mr. R. G. Marathe of the Willingdon College in the preparation of this edition. I regret that the scholastic character of the book is considerably impaired on account *of the want of accented English and Sanskrit type in the Press and that a few mistakes of printing have slipped in on account of the distance between the Editor and the Press. The student is therefore earnestly requested to make the necessary corrections in the text from the Errata before he begins to use the book.
P.-L. VAIDYA
Y
Willingdon College, Sangli.:
23rd October 1928.