Studies in Jainology Prakrit Literature and Languages

Author(s): B K Khadabadi
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 18

Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
notes the Ayāramga Cunni 100 in this context.? Now it is interesting to know that the great Camundarāya in his Cāmundarāya Purana composed in Kannada prose in C.978 A.D., refers to the Ardhamagadhi language in a similar way more than once: asesabhāsasvabhāva Sarvardhamagadh® and ”vividha bhāsasvabhāvakārdhamāgadhi dhvanī."9 Morcover Bhatta Akalankadeva in the opening and benedictory verse of his Karnataka Subdānusasanam, a renowned grammatical work on Kannada language composed in Sanskrit in 1604 A.D., offers salutation to Mahāvīra as follows:
“Namah Śrī Vardhamānaya visvavidyavabhasini Sarvabhaşamayi bhasa pravrttā yanmukhambujāt
And in his own commentary on this verse, he quotes Acarya Padmanandi, Acārya Jinasena and some other eminent teachers of olden times where the language of Mahavira ci, Ardhamāgadhi, is described to have possessed "ascşabhaşatmakatā'' or “nihsesabhasatmakata” (Qualitics of all the languages) which is one of the fourteen of its qualities such as “gambhiramadhuram manoharam” etc. Moreover commenting on the phrase 'sarvabhaşamayi', Bhattakalanka says:
“Sarvāḥ samastah karnațakāndhramagadha-malavadi nanajanapada vikalpaih. . . . . . .nānātvam. . . . .bhāsah. .... sarvabhāşah pravacana prasiddhāh astādaśa mahābhā saplasata kşullakabhāşah ca iti arthah nābhih nivritā vā tadbhūista vā tanmai bhagavadvāni iti”:ll
Here he means to say that all languages mean 18 major languages and 700 minor ones (dialects) that are well known in scriptures. Languages of the regions of Karnataka, Andhra, Magadha, Mālava etc, are some of those languages of which mostly consists the language of the Revered one ei., Ardhamāgadhi.!2
From this brief survey of literary evidences, as found in different works in different languages and belonging to different periods and regions, regarding Mahāvīra’s medium of teaching and