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८० : श्रमण / जनवरी-मार्च / १९९७
मेघनिर्मुक्तजलमिवैकस्वरूपं तदेव च देशविशेषात् संस्कारकरणात् च समासादितविशेषं सत् संस्कृताद्युत्तर भेदानाप्नोति । १
Śabdānuśāsana is the earliest work of Hemacandra and it was written most probably when he was quite young. What he writes in the Sabdanusāsana is the unbiased expression of a young scholar. He expressly admits the fact that Sanskrit is the original language and Prakrit is the offshoot of it i.e. Prakrit is the transformation of Sanskrit.
We can not summarily dispose off the views of Hemacandra by saying that he used the word प्रकृति in the sense of आधार (base) and not in the sense of 'original' as the word invariably denotes. A grammarian (f) like Hemacandra will never use a word which may create ambiguity. Actually he is indebted to Vararuci, the author of Prakṛta Prakasa in writing the VIII Adhyaya of his Śabdanusāsana. According to Vararuci Sanskrit is the प्रकृति of शौरसेनी and शौरसेनी is the प्रकृति of मागधी and पैशाची : Dr. C. Kunhan Raja in his preface to the Prākṛata Prakāśa writes-
"To Rāmapāņivada (commentator of the Prakṛta Prakāśa) Prakrit is not a language. It is only a metamorphosis of Sanskrit. If Ramapāņivāda regarded Prakrit as an artificial make up from Sanskrit, Vararuci, the author of the Sūtras did not regard the language as anything else."
Vararuci as interpreted by Rāmapāņivāda classifies the Prakrit words into three categories तत्सम तद्भव and देश्य. The tadbhava words have come into being from the Sanskrit words only. Here the word is significant. It means that the tadbhava words have
1.
२.
३.
Rudrata's Kāvyālaṁkāra Commentary by Namisādhu belonging to the Thārāpadrapuri gaccha, on II/12.
शौरसेनी प्रा० प्र० XI / 1; प्रकृति: संस्कृतम् XII/2; मागधी XI / 1; XI/2; पैशाची X / 1; प्रकृति: शौरसेनी ।
तत्र तद्भवं तस्मात्संस्कृतादेव संभूतम् । वृत्ति in the Sutra " शेष: संस्कृतात्"
VIII/23.
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