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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
note here that all the Prakrit works and Prakrit portions of commentatorial works, noted above, are in the Jäina Sauraseni Prakrit, conveniently so called by Prof.R.Pischcl, though this literary Prakrit dialect also has several Ardhamāgadhi and a few Maharantri features. Another important point regarding this Saurasení literature is that almost the whole of it is produced by the Digambara monks and scholars in the Karnataka region. Scveral of these basic texts are endowed with Kannada commentaries, most of which are still in the manuscript form. Moreover, thesc authors and their works have considerably influenced and shaped the contemporary and later Kannada literature.
Karnataka has also produced a Prakrit Grammar at the hands of Trivikrama (1300 A.D.). He is noted as the pioneer of the Southern School of Prakrit grammarians. Originally belonging to Andhra country, he seems to have come to Karnataka later,
There is not, so far, found any Māhārāntri Prakrit work composed in Karnataka. But there is a possibility of several verses in the Gathasaptasati having been composed by poets from Karnataka, who can hardly be identified on the strength of their bare names given in some of the manuscripts. Some scholars hold that Narasimha, poet of gathā 4.14 and Arikesari, poet of gathas 2.59 and 3.20, belong to Karnataka. The Kannada word, gāde (wise saying), derived from gathā and found in currency even to this day, rather indicates the possibility that the Prakrit gathās were very popular in Karnataka in early days.
Similarly no work in Paisaci Prakrit seems to have been produced in Karnataka. However, the Ganga King Durvinīta (C.600 A.D.), who is said to have translated the Paisāci Brhatkatha in Sanskrit, could have, in all probability, rendered it into Kannada also, for he is mentioned as an eminent Kannada prose writer by Nrpatunga in his Kavirajamārga. Moreover, some Paisaci speaking itinerent tribes or colonists in South India (including Karnataka) might have refluenced the Kannada language in case of J>c etc. Such influence could also be from Pali, for Māgadhi had hardly
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