Studies in Desya Prakrit

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

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वेदिकाः च कुशावर्ता तथान्या 2शूरसेनिका । भाजी3 च । गूर्जरी चैव रोमक्री मेदसंभवा ॥ ३ मारवी कानमखी च देवकी पञ्चात्तना ।। सैन्धवी कौशिका भद्रा तथान्या भद्रभोजिक। ॥ ४ कुन्तला कासला पारा यावनी कुकुरी तथा । मध्यदेशी च कम्बोजी [मलया चा]-त्यमा स्मृता ॥ ५ द्वाचत्वारिंशतिः प्रोक्ता एता भाषाः प्रसंख्यया ।। एता विमृश्य कयौं गीत गीतविचक्षणः ॥ ६ लक्षणानि च सर्वेषां कथयिष्ये यथाक्रमम् ।
संक्षेपेण समस्त तु न शक्य त्रिदशैरपि ॥ ७ This is followed by the Prakit verses with the introductory remark 379 asft. At the end of the chapter the title is given as भाषालशणाध्याय.
In the course of our examination of the illustrative section below we shall see that in their attempted restoration of the names of the dialects, Daniélou and Bhatt are on quite uncertain grounds regarding the names लाटी, गोंडी, उत्कला, पेशाची, तुरानिका and मलया. Probably पाञ्चाली is ninth in the order and पाश्चात्या (or पश्चिमा) is. eleventh, but Daniélou and Bhatt have assumend the reverse of that order. So the last Pada of the first verse has to be something like प्राच्या (or पूर्वा) पाञ्चालिका.
Further the fourteenth name is in all probability तुषारिका, and. not तुरानिका; the Ms. has actually तु रिका in v. 2, and तुरंवारा (i.e. तुक्खारा) in v. 21. The last name is most probably औडा (or औडिका) and not मलया. कानमूखी is very much suspect and possibly it is a corruption of कान्यकुब्जा.
The number of languages is given as fortytwo (v. 6.). The subsequent verses 8 to 48 present a few lexical characteristics of each of these Prakrits. As there are fortytwo languages, but fortyone characterising verses, we have to assume that either somewhere
1. देविका. 2. सूरसेनिका. 3. बौधी. 4. मोद.. 5. मालवी. 6. कोशला.