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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
423
Apabhramsa and Paisacī, being counted as three-and-a half languages, it appears from its place in the serial order that the Paisacī, the last one, is denoted as a half language. That the number three and-a-half has been a puzzling one is known by the fact that in one of the manuscripts it is replaced by four : "caturbhāse” as noted by Kittcl.14 Then Kittel observes, as already noted, that Nagavarma called Paisaci a half language probably because it was spoken only by barbarous tribes. But how could Kittel afford to ignore that Gunādhya composed his Bịhatkathā in the Paisādi language? Morcover like Apabhramsa the Paisaci is an equally important Prakrit dialect enumerated by Prakrit grammarians. The Buddhist Sthaviras of the Vaibhāșika school used Paisācis Rajasekhara gives to Paisācí, a place of equality along with Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa and observes that the Paisací has llavorous composition: “Sarasavacanam Bhūtavacanam Rajasekhara also tells that the people of Avanti, Pariyatra and Dasapura take interest in Paisaci.l? And it is so very interesting to know that Rajasekhara presents an ideal picture of a poetic concert at the King's court where Paisaci is treated cqually with Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa, as the poets of these four languayes are seated to the North, East, West and South respectively."' Pischel observes that Paisacī was so much peculiar and independent that it began to be called as the fourth language besides Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa." With all this on the side of Paisaci, Kiteľ's above noted observation appears to be just casual.
Then Dr.Umarji observes: “Paisacī is considered to be a half language perhaps because it contains about half sounds of the Sanskrit language":20 But this numerical proportion theory does not stand any more for every Prakrit dialect has considerably less number of sounds than that of Sanskrit. Can we call, then, Apabhramsa ‘One-third language'?
Then what might have led Nāgavarma to denote Paisací as a half language? Really it may not be Nagavarma's original way
of denoting the Paisāci. Because about some forty years earlier,21 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
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