Proceedings of the Seminar on Prakrit Studies 1973

Author(s): K R Chandra, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 129

1. Prakritic Influences Revealed In the Works of Papini, Katyayana and Patanjali
Dr. S. D. Laddu, Poona
Introductory
A large mass of Vedic variants that bear striking resemblances with the phonetic features of the later Middle-Indic dialects has been collected by Bloomfield and Edgerton in their Vedic Variants. This was followed by studies by Oertel, Wackernagel, Tedesco and Devasthali, on this aspect for the Vedic Sanskrit. These studies are convincing for the existence of dialects, contemporary with the Vedic texts and having phonological features that we know from the later attested MIA dialects. Skold's study of the Nirukta has led him to believe that Yaska spoke a language of that earlier stage of Middle-Indian which is characterized as the "Pali-Stufe " by German Scholars. He further states that the Sanskrit of Yaska and Panini was "the spoken language of the educated class, the brahmans, but which could not remain uninfluenced by the vernaculars."2 In Panini Emeneau finds "some clear evidence" of this nature which he easily expects in view of the chronological proximity of Panini to the Buddha who taught in the colloquial or MIA dialects. When we find a whole class of words assumed by Panini, the prṣodarādi-s, showing irregularities of formation and yet granted a special sanction by him, it is not difficult to agree with the conclusion of Emeneau.
Katyayana (Kty), who followed Panini (P) some centuries later, has discussed in his Värttika (Vt)s about one-third of P's Sutras in the light of the state of Sanskrit current at his time. These were critically discussed in the Great Commentary by Patanjali (Ptj). There are several passages in the Mahabhāṣya (M) bearing references to the popular speech which exhibited a number of corruptions of the Sanskrit language. Thus, a single word go showed not less than four apabhramsa-s, carrying the same denotation (samānāyām arthagatau), into gāvi, gont, gota, and gopotalikā, while Devadatta, ājñāpayati ( through ajñapayati), vartate, vardhate, kṛś-,dṛś- and √svap- were uttered then by people respectively as Devadinna, aṇapayati, vattati, vadḍhati, √kasa-, √disa- and supa-. This sample of the invasion of corrupt expressions on the Sanskrit speech of the days is enough to show the contamination in speech which was then a mixture of correct and incorrect. expressions. So a dialect like Pali, according to R. G. Bhandarkar, must have been "the vernacular of the other classes." Although the object of