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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
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KANNADA ELEMENT IN
DHATVĀDESAS
The treatment of the so-called dhatvadesas forms an integral part of Prakrit Grammars, though it, in respect of the number of dhātvādesas, their arrangement, distribution, explanation etc. differs from one to another. Most of the grammarians are silent on the concept or nature of dhātvadeśas. Vararuci, the oldest Prakrit grammarian and the first to reduce popular dialects to a system, straightaway commences enlisting them. Even Bhāmaha, his commentator, does not care to explain anything about them. It is the great Heinacandra who, in his Prakril Grammar, Siddha-Hema, and his Desī Lexocon, Dcsīnāmamala, both with his own commentaries, tells us what he thinks to be chatvādesas and discourses, though in a scattered manner, about their nature.
According to Hcmacandra, vajjar etc. are the ten substitutes for the Sanskrit verbal root kath-and though they have been taught by his predecessors as desī, hc considers them as dhatvādesas, for, thousands of forms of these can be had by adding to them the various verbal suffixes.' Moreover, akkus - etc. are taught, in his Grammar, as dhatvādesas for gacch - and hence, are not included in the Desināmamala. Nor is the inclusion of dhātvādesas in the Desi Lexicon proper, for innumerable forms of them can be had by the addition of verbal suffixes and, as such, will make such collections impossible. From these observations of
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