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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
Of these 573 inscriptions, 271 are collected from the Cikka Betta (Small Hill), 172 from the Dodda Betta (Big Hill), 80 from the Śravanabelgola village and 60 from the round about area. I have selected the inscriptions in the Small Hill for my study, because almost all the ancient ones are centralized therein. As a whole, these 271 inscriptions belong to the period between the 6th or 7th century A.D, and the 19th century A.D. But more than half of these i.e, 154, belong to the early period between the 6th or 7th century A.D. and the 10th century A.D. I have restricted my study to these 154 inscriptions, but have referred, wherever necessary, to a few later and other ones too. I have used the Second Edition as well as the Mysore Edition of the E.C.Vol.II for my study presented below here. The first number of the inscription refers to the Mysore Edition and the number in the bracket (of the same inscription) refers to the Second Edition. The date that follows these numbers is also from these two editions.
(I)
The following are the Prakrit words noted from these inscriptions:
5
Saddhamma : No.32 (29), c.700 A.D. This word occurs twice in this inscription. It is interesting to note that the word dhamma also occurs in (the Jaina) Inscription No.15 (of 1939-40), Karnatak Inscriptions Vol.1, found at Shiggaom (District:Dharwad) and belonging to the reign of the Rāṣṭrakūta King Amoghavarṣa (814-870 A.D.). It is possible that these Prakrit terms, saddhamma and dhamma, had a special sanctity for some Jaina engravers; or these terms may have occured in some early Prakrit inscriptions the might have served as models for such engravers. Because saddharma or dhamma does not occur invariably or often in other early Jaina inscriptions.
caga No.163 (133), 982 A.D. jasa No.163 (133), 982 A.D.
These two words are very interesting from the point of view of Kannada Linguistics. The earliest available Kannada grammarian,
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