Sambodhi 1977 Vol 06

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 79

ON THE PAIŚĀCI ORIGIN OF KANNADA LANGUAGE *
R. K, Khadabadi
Paiści is one of the very archaic Prakrit dialects. It is in Paigāci that Guņādhya composed his great Brhatkathā which could stand in rank with the Ra nāyani and the Mahabharata. But unfortunately the Brhatkatha is irrecoverably lost; 110 other literary work in Paiśācī has come down to us; and we have to depend mainly on grammarians like Hemacandra who has described the language fairly well in his Siddhahema Subdanušāsana. Because of its peculair and independent nature, Paišācı has been considered as the fourth language besides Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa. Phonologically Paigācı shows closer relation with Sanskrit and Pāli.
Often attempts are made to trace isolated characterstics of Paisaci in one language or the other. An attempt is made to detect Dravidian affinities in the so called Paigāci language of the North West, on the ground tliat Paisaci was connected with the Dravidian group of languages.2 Moreover scholars like Prof. Muliya Timmappayyad and Dr. V. R. Umarji' have tried to prove that the Kannada language originated from the Paisācione. I Propose to examine, in this paper, this theory of the Paisāci origin of the Kannada language and also present a few observations on the same.
Prof. Muliya Timmappayya's line of thought regarding the theory of the Paisāci origin of the Kannada languages can be summarised as follows: (i) Panipa in lsis Vikramār juna Vijaya (941 A. D.) stales:
Amalayacalahimagiri Simāvanitala(ke) Bengimandalado! ce !
lvagame tañagadondūr nāmadolur Vengipalų karam sogāyisugun 11 (40, Ā. XIV) Paper presented at the 28 th Session of the All India Oriental Conference (Prakrit and Jainism Scetion) held at the Karnatak University, Dharwar, in November, 1976. Vide R. Pisch el, Comparative Grammar of the Prakrit Languages, English Tr. by
Subhadra Jha, Varanasi 1957, p. 30. 2 (i) The Dravidian Affinites of the Paišāci Languages, by K. A. Row, Sir Asutosh
Mookerjee Silver Jubilee Volume III, Orientalia Part 2, pp. 427-32. (ii) Vide Paišāci Language and Literature, by Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Annals of the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. XXI, Part 1-2, p. 17. 3 Nādoja Pampa, Mangalore 1938, Ch. IV Vengiinandala, pp. 85–127. 4 Kannada Language : Its Origin and Development, Dharwar 1969, Ch. VII, pp. 81-94, 5 Presented Op. cit.
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nasi 1957, p2. Patisci Langues 2. pp