Studies in Desya Prakrit

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

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a great confusion as to the correct form and meaning of many a Deși expression. (2) This confusion was further confounded by the carelessness and erratic practices of the scribes. (3) Moreover because the earlier lexicons did not adopt the alphabetical order and word-length principles of item-arrangement, there were no internal checks to guard against the spelling confusion.
Hemacandra adopted the alphabetical and word-lengthwise arrangement for his work. In matters of doubt or difference, he made his choice after critical weighing, and where he felt the evidence to be fairly divided or undecisive, he accomodated alternative view points. At numerous places in the commentary in the DN., Hemacandra has cited and discussed authorities and controverted views concerning the form and meaning of the listed items. This fact combined with the numerous optional spellings and meanings accepted in his lexicon and the wild profusion of variant readings recorded by Pischel in his edition of the DN give us some measure of the bafflingly difficuit problems that Hemacandra was required to face. And it highly redounds to his credit that his overall treatment of the Desis reveal a high degree of balance, clarity and scientific caution.
The same qualities are also evident from the manner he has delimited the scope of Deść, whose working definition, let alone a rigorous one, was not so easy to state within the bounds of the then accepted general principles and frame of reference. He sets up three criteria for characterizing Deśí words : (i) Formal non-derivability. Those lexical items which were not derivable from Sanskrit in accordance with the recognized rules of derivation were Dests. (ii) Semantic non-derivability : Those expressions which, though formally derivable from Sanskrit elements, had a meaning different (though conceptually derivable) from that of the latter were Deśis. (iii) Tradition : Some items which, though obviously more or less marginal,