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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
403
that the author does not call the eighteen languages Desi but Mahā (great) and at the same time he tells that they are well known in (Jaina) scriptures. In fact we do not find any reference to the 'Eighteen Great Languages' in any of the Jaina canonical works. The opening verse of the said work is as follows:
Namah Śrī Vardhamānāya viśvavidyavabhasinī, Sarvabhāṣāmayi bhāsa pravrttā yanmukhāmbujāt. The author's own commentary runs as follows: Sarvah
samastah Karnatkāndhramagadhamālavādinānājanapadavikalpaih nānātvam prāptā). .... Sarvabhāşah pravacanaprasiddha astadaśamahābhāṣāh Saptașata Kșullakabhāṣāh ca iti arthah. All languages mean those that are spoken in the varios countries like Karnatak, Andhra, Magadha, Mālavā etc., They are those Eighteen Great Languages well known in Agamas and Seven hundred dialects.
A close scrutiny of all these references to the Eighteen languages, Desi or otherwise, would yield us the following points: (i) All the above noted works whie contain references
to the “Eighteen Languages, Desi or otherwise, are Jain works. The earliest work is the Nayadhammakahão (400 B.C.)12 and the latest one
is the Karnataka Sabdanusasanam (1604 A.D.). (ii) All the canonical works, the exegetical work viz.,
Nisitha Cūrni and the Kuvalayamala contain the reference as 'atthārasadesībhāsa, the Eighteen Desī
Languages. (iii) In the Kuvalayamala the author also enumerates these
languages. Actually he enumerates, of course by illustrating them, only sixteen which include the Dravidian too. Hence it is clear that the list is arbitrary and the author is trying to adhere to the number Eighteen which by his time had duly acquired traditional or conventional importance the ultimate For Private & Personal Use Only
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