Prakritadhyaya

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

Page 34

INTRODUCTION
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(I. 231) and bo vaḥ (I. 237) are not found in any of the easteru texts. As the manuscripts of the eastern grammarians are either in Bengali or in Oriya character (and rarely in Devanāgari), it is very difficult to understand what they actually mean when they compose the sūtra in the form of cott, because in Bengali and in Oriya the same character b corresponds to the Nāgarī 7 and af. When we come to Kramadiśvara, . we find no such distinction between & labial b and & semi-vowel v maintained from the point of view of the construction of the sūtras.' He simply states 697 7: (II. 5); but what The means to say is neither clear from the manuscript nor from the other rules of the text. The above-mentioned two sūtras of Hemacandra, (viz. po vaḥ and bo vaḥ ) are not also found in Kramadīśvara. So also is the case with the other grammarians like Puruşottama, Rāmaśarmā and Mārkaņdeya. Mārkandeya's text is written in Oriya character and hence we are to come across the same diffioulty. Considering all these aspects of the problem, I have adopted the method of Cowell, wbo in his introduction to Vararuci's Präkyla-prakāśa says--"I have also throughout followed the manuscripts in writing (a) as the Prākrit equivalent for the Sanskrit p ; in the continental editions of the plays it has been usual to write b, but for this tbere is no authority, as the manuscripts make no difference between the v=the Skt. P, and that=the Skt. v. The rules of Vararuci evidently show that there was no distinction whatever between 6 and v". He further adds-"It is not so easy to determine which of the two sounds thus absorbed the other and whether in translation we should represent it by b or v universally; the analogy of the modern languages would incline us to the former, but a sūtra in Hamacandra ... seems to favour the latter, which I bave, therefore, adopted throughtout". Ho has, therefore. printed semivowel v and has rejected b altogether in his edition of Präkttaprakāśa. Similarly, I have also printed semi-vowel v in the sūtra po vaḥ (II. 5) of Kramadīśvara and left it to the reader to pronounce it according to his speech habit.
$31, In fine, it may be added that a modest and conscientious effort has been made to present the text faithfully, carefully and cautiously as far as possible after judiciously eschewing the scribal errors. I have not