Studies in Desya Prakrit

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

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rin view of the fact that something like utter cofusion prevailed at that time in the field of Deśya lexicography owing to disagreement among authorites, immature writers, ignorant scribes and poor condition of preservation of old texts. It highly redounds to Hemacandra's credit that, owing to his scientific attitude and practical approach, he succeeded in introducing considerable measure of order where disorder reigned. As a consequence, the Deśināmamālā had such a success that it eclipsed almost all the earlier Deść lexicons, which in course of time went out of use and eventually disappeared altogether. The success achieved by Hemacandra in this regard owes much to his adoption of some definite principles and methods in compiling his work.
He sets up five criteria for defining the character and scope of ithe Deśya words : (i) Those words which were confined to the ordinary speech
of the peoples in various regions like Mahārāșțra, etc (i.e. words of regional dialects) were to be ignored.
(ii) Those Prakrit words only which were handed down
through the tradition reaching back to a hoary past were to be noted.
(iii) of these words only those were Deśya which were not
analysable as complexes of root and suffix, and which could not be derived from Sanskrit through the grammatical processes of Loss, Intrusion, Modification etc.
(iv) Certain Prakrit words inspite of being analysable and
derivable from Sanskrit, were to be considered Deśya, if in their Sanskrit form they were not found recorded in standard Sanskrit lexicons.
(v) If the meaning of a Prakrit word could be explained
through metaphorical transfer as compared with the meaning of the corresponding Sanskrit form of that word, that word was not be considered Deśya.