Studies in Desya Prakrit

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: Kalikal Sarvagya Shri Hemchandracharya Navam Janmashatabdi Smruti Sanskar Shikshannidhi Ahmedabad

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It was S. M. Katre who first pointed out in 1939 the importance of this chapter of the Gitālankära.2 He presented a list of the names of Prakrits given in the Gitālankāra and published the text of the fifteenth chapter. Now we have an edition of the whole work.
The text of the fifteenth chapter of the GT., especially that of its Prakrit portion is very badly preserved in its only available manuscript. It is highly corrupt and full of serious errors. So much so that neither Katre nor Danielou and Bhatt could attempt a translation or even a summary of the contents of the illustrative verses.3 The text as it stands appears mostly chaotic. On the face of it, it does not seem possible to make out any connected sense even from single lines or their portions. Under the circumstances, any attempt to make word-division is also in danger of being considered nothing but futile guesswork.
The present effort of conjecturally reconstructing the text, in so far as it could be done, has a very limited aim of making out something from a nearly hopeless text. Quite obviously such guesswork is always highly risky and subjective, and the results are patently disproportionate to the time and effort involved.
The first six verses of ch. XV of the GT. give the list of Prakrit dialects, said to have a total of fortytwo. Most of the first verse and a part of the second verse are missing. Danielou and Bhatt have tried to restore tentatively the missing portion on the basis of indications found in the subsequent part of the chapter. The text of the first six verses along with that of the seventh verse which introduces the subsequent illustrative section is reproduced below after Danièlou and Bhatt. (The obviously incorrect Ms. readings are given in the footnotes).
महाराष्ट्री किराती च [ सौराष्ट्री मागधी तथा लाटी.डी च काश्मीरी पौरस्त्या पश्चिमोत्कला ॥ १ पाब्चाला चापि पैशाची ] म्लेच्छी चैव तुरा [ नि]का । सोमकी चालकी काञ्ची
मालवी
काशिस भवा ॥ २