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Rishibhashit: A Study
Vijjati, Chindati, Seedati, Visujjhati, Vassati, Sinchati, Luppati etc., and the tendency of omitting the last consonant, like in Maharashtri Prakrit is not seen. In the whole Rishibhashit the omission of the last consonant is not seen except at eight or ten places.
Similarly the use of the sound 'Ya' instead of 'Ta' is negligible. Generally, complete Rishibhashit predominantly uses the sound 'Ta'. For Atma, leaving aside one or two instances, everywhere the word 'Aata' has been used. In the tenth chapter the word Tetaliputta has been used at places, and not Teyaliputta as in Jnatadharma-Katha. Similarly in the same chapter Moosikaridhoota word has been used for his wife. However, at one place Dhooyam word has also been used. It is clear that these exceptions from later Maharashtri forms must have crept into the editions of original text due to later influence. It is possible that when palm leave copies of this work were done, these changes must have come due to the influence of the language of that period through the scribers.
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Although this influence of Maharashtri Prakrit on Rishibhashit is not more than two percent, the same influence on the Ardha Magadhi canons like Acharanga, Sutrakritang, Uttaradhyayan and Dashvaikalika, supposed to be ancient, is approximately fifteen to twenty five percent. However, one reason for this may be that whereas Uttaradhyayan and Dashvaikailika were in more popular use, Rishibhashit was not much in use. As a result, the effect of changed pronunciations must have been less on Rishibhashit, and because of others being more in use, this effect on them must already have set in even before the palm leave copies were made, after the last vocal rendering. Unfortunately, at the time of editing of the canons these facts were not considered and efforts to retain the oldest form of language was not made.
I feel that the old manuscripts of ancient Ardhamagadhi works like Acharanga, Sutrakritang, Rishibhashit, Uttaradhyayan, Kalpasutra, and others should be collected and if any manuscript contains old text form, it should be preserved. Not only this, where there are variations like Aata and Aaya, Jadha and Jaha. Loye and Loge in the same line, only the old forms should be accepted. It is a matter of contentment that some scholars like professors Madhusudan Dhaki and K. R. Chandra and others have drawn attention in this direction. I am hopeful that in the future editions of the canons, these facts will be attended to. As the lingual form of a book is very much helpful in determining its period, this is the responsibility of scholars that oldest form of the language of the work is retained,
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