Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 366

Sec. I
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
341
understand able to the people with all its meanings and reaches their hearts.
The BhS refers only to Arddha-Māgadhi, the language spoken by the gods and the human beings, thus it becomes distinguished.
“Devā ņam addhamāgahāe bhāsāe bliāsamti sāvi ya ņam
addhamāgahā bhāsā bhāsijjamāņā visissati"'?.
This prevalent language is also referred to in the Prajiāpamā Sutra”.
Besides these, the other Jaina texts bear testimony to the fact that Lord Mahāvira preached the Law in this very language to the people so that all of them including the men and women of all ages, the literate and illiterate* belonging to the different communities could grasp and understand the message and meanings of his holy teachings witbout any difficulty, for it was their common dialect current in the region in which the Master moved and carried on his religious activities.
The Niśitha.cūrņi" gives a quite different denotation of the word Arddha-Māgadhi' thus that it was either the language of half of Magadha or it consisted of the eighteen classes of Desībhāsā.
It appears from the Bhs that Arddha-Māgadhi was a language common and understandable to all the cultured and ordinary laities including the kings, nobles, officials, merchants, and the general people among whom Lord Mahāvīra and the other wandering religious teachers preached their respective Laws.
But it should be observed that Sanskrit also flourished side by side with Arddha-Māgadhi, as it is evidenced by the fact of
1 BhS, 5, 4, 191.
2 Pannavanā, 11, 37. 3 Samavāyānga Sutta, p. 57; Ovãiya Sutta 34. p. 146; Acārānga
Cūrni 7. p. 255. 4 Ācāranga Curne, 7. p. 255. 5 Nisitha Cūrņi, p. 733.