Proceedings of the Seminar on Prakrit Studies 1973

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

Page 24

Prakrit Studies: Their Literary and Philosophical Value
(Extension Lecture )
by Late Prof. Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Mysore. By Prakrit Studies we understand the studies in Prākrit languages and literature; and we are to assess their literary and philosophical value. They are an inseparable part and parcel of Indian languages and literature; so they cannot be isolated altogether, though a specialigt might concentrate more attention on some branch of studies or the other. To put it plainly, an earnest student of Prākrit languages has to study them in relation to Sanskrit on one hand and to Modern Indian Languages on the other. Prakrit languages clearly show different layers with reference to time and locality; and on them depends their closeness to Sanskrit or the other modern Indo-Aryan Language.
There is a two-fold approach to the study of Prākrit. A modern linguist is interested in the formal study of language and its internal structure; and today, this branch of study is taking quick strides, especially in the U. S. A. A philologist is interested in the study of the text; he is concerned not only with the language and its structure, but also studies it as a piece of literature in which are reflected many aspects of the culture and civilisation, of the sum-total of the life of people who used that particular language or dialect. We have to adopt both these points of view in our Prakrit studies.
When the Prâkrit grammarians define the term Prākrit, they are doing it in relation to Sanskrit; but it is accepted by all now that Prakrits basically are the spoken idiom of the common man. But, as is common, their usage in literature is erected by men of letters many of whom were well-versed in Sanskrit.
So, when one reads Kāvyas like the Setubandha, Gaudavaho, Lilavai, Karsavaho and nost of the Prākrit sections in the so-called Sanskrit dramas, one finds here that the authors are working closely under the shadow of Sanskrit. In fact, they are thinking in Sanskrit but writing in Prākrit. A poet like Rajasekhara is a good illustration on the point. A study of such layers of Prakrit literature has to be done in relation to Sanskrit texts of that category. Here, the authors are all well trained in the precision of expression, in various metrical forms, in the use of