Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 72

Sec. III]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
"Tae naṁ Samane Bhagavam Mahāvire Kūnigassa ranno Bimbhisāra puttassa Addha-Māga hāe Bhāsāe bhāsai sā vi ya ņam Addha-Māgahā Bhāsā tesim savvesim ariyamanāriyāņam appaņo samāsāe pariņāmeṇam pariņa mai."
According to this instruction his contemporary Gañadhara Śri Sudharman Swāmin composed all the Sūtra-Granthas in Ardlha-Māgadhi.
"Attham bhāsai aribā, suttam gamthamti ganaharā niuņaṁ":
As already discussed in the first section of this chapter the Siddhantas were not committed to writing at the time of Sudharman Swamin, but they were preserved in memory by the recital study from preceptor to pupil. At the Pāļaliputra council under the headship of Sthūl bhadra they were collected and compiled but were not given the form in writing. It was at the Vallabhi Council under the presidency of Devarddhi Gamin-the Kşamāśramaņa they were again collected, redacted and reduced to writing in the beginaing of the six century A. D.
So the language of the Bhs and other canonical works is to be traced in Magadha in Eastern India. It is observable that the language of this fifth Anga is not uniform as the tendency of modernizing it was stopped by Devarddhi Ganin. There is the absence of self-persistent orthography of Jain Prākrta probably due to the effect of gradual entrance of the Vernacular in which the canonical texts were recited mostly and the spellings represent the original stratum; the most modern are representing the form immediately pending the redaction ; it is near Pāli than to Prākrta of Hāla, etc., e.g. bhūta-bhūya ; udaga-udaya, waya; lobha-loha.
It was provided with a good deal of peculiarities which form the characteristics of Māgadhi dialect e. g. the ending of the nominative in e, samane,' nayare, etc.
1 Aupapātika Sutra; vide Pāia Sadda Mahannavo, p. 19. * Ava Syaka Niryukti, vide Paia Sadda Mahannavo, p. 19. Bhs, 1, 1,5.
Įb, 1-1.5.