Studies in Desya Prakrit

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

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Hemacandra introduced certain methodological innovations, in the arrangement and presentation of his lexical material. This made for greater orderliness and clarity and enhanced the reference value of his work. He adopted an alphabetical order for the items selected, and under each letter-head he arranged the words according to the number of syllables. Items with multiple meanings were separately grouped. He composed verses to illustrate the use of the recorded items : these also provided the necessary context to remove ambiguities where the glossing word (in Prakrit or Sanskrit) had several meanings. Against the earlier practice, he excluded the verbal substitutes (dhātvādesas) from the lexicon and assigned them to the Prakrit grammar because of their special. characteristic of combinability with derivative affixes of Sanskrit origin. But for the sake of convenience and to avert any sudden break with the tradition, he also noted them in his commentary on the Dešināmamālā.
This commentary also served the purpose of a clearing house: Hemacandra critically evaluated earlier words in Deśya lexicography, distinguishing inaccurate and authentic ones from their opposites. In his work he incorporated the materials from the latter sources. In numerous cases of doubt or disagreement, he selected and rejected after properly weighing the available evidence, noted the alternatives where he found them equally authoritative and left the choice open where no decisive evidence was available. We can well imagine the enormous effort involved in this sort of task. and appreciate the high scholarly spirit which saved the Deśya lexicography from utter confusion and threatened oblivion.
Hemacandra's Deśināmamālā gives the meanings of about four thousand words. If we count a word with multiple meanings as so many separate words, then the number may go up by a thousand. On the other hand the total would go down by a few hundred if we leave out those items which are mere orthographic or phonological variants of some other items. or are such as can be shown to be the result of some confusion or error.?