Prakritadhyaya

Author(s): Kramdishwar, Satyaranjan Banerjee, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 26

INTRODUOTION
17
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of letters, which are bound to vary from copyist to copyist. In forms, contents and chapter-markings, all these are skin to each other, excepting the number of folios which vary from manusoript to manuscript. They are all written in a Bengali character of not very old type. Only after the first chapter, do we find the chapter-marking as "Svara-kāryam nivȚttam" in A BOO, SS, and even in L and before the beginning of the fifth as "Apabhramśārambhah". All the colophons are exactly the same, excepting in B where an additional inclusion of "mahārājādhiraja-Śrīmaj-Jumara-parisodhita-víttau" is found. All these manuscripts contain the metre and rhetoric portions also. The marginal glosses of Prākrit renderings are found, excepting in B where the evolution of Sanskrit sounds is given, The Sūtras and the vitti's are identical and exactly the same, save a few migreadings and omissions.
$ 23. Generally speaking, the readings of all these manuscripts of Kramadīśvara's Prākrit grammar, consulted and collated by me, ere almost invariably the same, and the variants in readings which we notice in all these manuscripts are not such as to prove the existence of two or more recensions of the work. In all the Mss. the same carelessness of individual copyists, sometimes with the intention of improving upon the text of the author, is also noticed.
$24Some orthographical peculiarities which are common to all these Bengali manuscripts may be noted below :
(1) Vowels
:) Sometimes it is very difficult for us to ascertain initial or medial a (T) or a (7) which is normally confounded with e (4) or rarely with tā ().
ii) Confusions in short ė () with h (3), long 7 ( 5 ) with dda (W), o ( l ) with tta ( 6 ) or sometimes with tu ( 9 ),u () with da (5),( 4 ) with tra ( 0 )-are noticed.
jii) : (visarga) is retained when it should be dropped in Prākrit words; and it is, at times, dropped in Sanskrit words where it is to be retained.
iv) (anusvāra) is given with a dot (.) above the word, and sometimes as usual (2),