________________
P
Vol. XXI, No. 2
63
expression māra athavā peţão (cf. Bengali mār pit literary beating and chiding). Another reading muñcedha instead of maledha has a different connotation. That is to say, after hearing the cause of the coming of the ring into the hands of fisherman, it is upto the policeman who can release him or beat him, Perhaps with this idea in mind the reading has changed into muñcedha.
Apart from what has been said above with regard to the reading of Hemacandra, the reading dhaledha has not developed any more as one of the readings of Sakuntalā. The main purpose of this line, of course, is to show Sanskrit tavat becomes dāva. In Magadht and as far as other readings are concerned the Magadhi features are, of course, maintained.
In the same vṛtti another line from the Sakuntala is quoted kim khu sobhane bamhane si ti kalia laññā paliggahe dinne. This reading has also some variants though not of strong type, but fairly significant The accepted reading as found in the most of the editions is kim nu kkhu sohane bamhane tti kadua lañña de padiggahe dinne.
ones.
First of all the khu of Hemacandra generally becomes kkhu in Prakrit and that is why, it is found in almost all the editions, of course, between kim and khu the particle nu is inserted, and therefore, the justification of doubling khu which is linguistically also explainable (khalu<*khlu<khu) and when any word is preceded other than anusvara this kkhu is preserved. Othewise after anusvara it becomes khu, so Hemacandra's reading is perhaps kim khu. The reading sobhana which becomes sohana in Mahārāṣṭrī. of course, is changed the reason being bh is initially retained as bhavati<bhodi as in Sauraseni, but not in medial position whose inclination is to reduce to aspiration The reading st coming from Sanskrit asi is, of course, not found in any of the readings. The gerundial form kalia for krtvä seems to be a little akward in the context of Magadhi. According to Hemacandra kr and gam (IV. 272) take gerundial suffix adua in Sauraseni, to Sanskrit kṛtva becomes kadua, forms like karia and gacchia (IV. 271) are also available. But according to Eastern school of Prakrit grammarians, the form Kadua and gadua are possible. In this respect Hemacandra has no rule, hence in all the printed editions, the reading kadua is found. However except a few this reading of Hemacandra has more or less come down to us with a little variations only. From the citation by Hemacandra we can frame our idea of how the readings are changed from time to time, and by this process of transmission from generation the original feature of a language (here of course Magadhi) is changed to such an extent that it often baffles our attempt to find out the original reading as well as the characteristic features of a language.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
