Some Topics in the Development of OIA MIA NIA

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 99

'Below is anvil. Strokes of ) hammer fall upon it. There is detestable plucking with pincers; see the hardship that befalls fire for being attached to loha (iron, avarice)'.
luscoda- is evidently formed from luịca- which is derived from lurc- 'to pluck'.
5. Discussion of matkotakaFurther one more word of doubtful derivation is to be considered. It is Pk. makkodaya., Sanskritized matkotaka- 'a kind of black termite.'
Hemacandra's Deśināmamālā records at 6, 142 makkoda- in the sense of urņāpipilikā. It is not known what sort of insect the latter is. At 6,48 too it records a Deśya word pippadā in the same sense. But in Hemacandra's Parisistaparvan alias Sthaviravalicarita, matkotaka- occurs at 8, 342-343 and there it seems to have the same sense as Gujarati makodo a kind of black termite'. The relevant lines from the Parisistaparvan are as follows:
matkotaka-dariśvagnim ksipannāsīt tadă ca sah. mat-putropadrava-karan dustān matkotakānamūn. mülād- unmülayannasmi dustānām nányad arhati.
1.
Siddhahema. 8,4, 429-430; Pischel, R., Grammatik der PrakritSprachen, 1900. A collection of slanderous and derisive tales about the bharataka or bharadaka is available in Sanskrit (called Bharatakadvātrimsikä: vide Keith, ibid, 293) and in Old Gujarati 'called Bharadakabatrisiāsa; composed by Hiraji in 1625 or 1645; vide Desai, M.D.. Jain Gurjar Kavio, III, i 1944. 711-16). The Sanskrit version seems to be based on the Old Gujarati version. In that case the former's suggested date (c. 1400) may have to be revised. Compare Ratna Sriyan, A Critical Study of the Deśya ana Rare Words from Puspadanta's Mahăpurāņa and his other Apabhramsa works. 1966, 287-19.