Shravakachar of Vasunandini

Author(s): Signe Kirde
Publisher: Signe Kirde

Page 34

4.1 Elements of Style
4 STYLE OF ŚR (57-205)
be regarded as belonging to the Jain canonical scriptures in the strict sense, but they are sometimes referred to as belonging to the Caranânuyoga secondary canon.2 Generally, the ways in which a word is spelt in a Dig. manuscript may differ depending on the age of the manuscript and the regional traditions of the scribes.
The outstanding features of the Daigambari manuscripts of Kundakunda and Vattakera have been discussed by Denecke 1922:3ff. in his introductory chapters of his text edition. The characteristics of the manuscripts and some stylistic elements of the Pkt. Aņuvekkhās have been analysed by Upadhye in the edition of KA.83 Some distinctive characteristics of those manuscripts also go for those of Vasunandin. The changes of t- and -- to -d- and -d-, the changes of -th- and -th-to-dh- and -dh-, typical for the region, in which Sauraseni was spoken, appear in Dig. manuscripts, but it can be observed that this does not apply to for all instances of Daigambari. We should take into consideration that medieval scribes allowed themselves to use many variants and standard abbreviations. This concerns the way of writing aspirated, non-aspirated, retroflex and non-retroflex dentals, especially when these occur between two vowels.84 Sometimes, the voiceless representatives are retained, or retroflexes in consonant clusters are represented by spirants.85 Denecke remarks that the grammatical rules cannot be applied strictly to all the Dig. manuscripts, and only with certain reservations.
82 Senior texts" is a term coined only for Svet. texts (German: "Senioren des Siddhanta" in Schubring 1935:57-58). It is a term which refers to the oldest layers of Jain scriptures. This division is based on Jacobi's analysis of the style and contents of the oldest sections of the Svet. canon. According to Jain, who analyses some patterns of Vasunandin's Śr in the Hindi Introduction to the Indian printed edition, Vasunandin's manual is younger than KA and Rk. For the division of Jain scriptures see Bollée 1977, Preface, VII; Schubring 1962:58-59; Alsdorf 1966:11; Tatia 1994, Foreword. XII; Jaini 1979:78-81; Kulkarni 1980, Introduction, pp. IIff.; Bruhn 1987, 2003:6ff., 82: Folkert 1993:22; Schubring 2004:13, Foreword, note 39; Wiley 2004: Fujinaga 2007:2.
83 Denecke 1922:3ff. describes the important features of the Pkt. in the manuscripts of the Samaya-sära and Chap-pāhuda assigned to Kundakunda and the manuscript of Māc, chapter V, assigned to Vattakera. He comments on Pischel's observations on the changes of consonants and consonant clusters in some Middle Indo-Aryan dialects (Pischel 1957 (1965), Paragraph 21ff.).
84 Different forms of representations of -t-, -, -d-, -d-, -th-, -th-, -dh-, and -dh- are applied in the manuscripts, especially in consonant and vowel clusters.
Those features are discussed in Denecke 1922:10ff. They are based on the manuscripts of the above-mentioned scriptures, which do not always show those changes of intermediate consonants. According to Van den Bossche 1999:14ff. the Dig.-Sauraseni preserves more peculiarities of the Ardha-Māgadhi and Skt. than the Jain-Māhārāstri, the language used for texts in some of the Svet. commentaries.