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PRAKRIT
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works; and there is seen the influence of linguistic tendencies wellknown in Mahārāstri which was evolving as a literary language in the early centuries of the Christian era. Such a modernization was inevitable in course of oral transmission, especially because the Svētāmbara monks were already using the Prākrit not only as a language of religous scripture but also as a vehicle of literary expression. In the verses common to both, the Digamber texts soften. In the verses common to both, the Digambara texts soften the intervocalic consonants, while those of the Svētāmbaras lose them, leaving the vowel,
Prior to the Patalipura Council, at the time of Candragupta Maurya, a body of Jain monks, on the advent of a famine migrated to the South under Bhadrabahu. To satisfy the religious needs of the community they began jotting down the memory notes, which have survived to us in the forms of many Prākrit texts that deserve to be called the ProCannon of the Jainas. The earliest of these are the Satkarma and Kasaya -- prabhrta, which are the remnants of the Drativāda. The commentaries of Virasēna-Jina sēna (816 a.d.) incorporate earlier commentaries in Prākrit; and they indicate what an amount of traditional details was associated with the original sutras. They deal with the highly technical and elaborate dectorine of karman which is a unique feature of Jainism. Among the works of pro-cannon, the Mulācāra of Vattakara and the Arādhanā of Sivarāya give elaborate details about the monastic life, its rules and regulations. The Prākrit Bhaktis are a sort of devotional composition of daily recitation.
A large number of work is attributed to Kundakunda, but only a few of them have come down to us. His pancastikāya and pravacanasāra are systematic expositions of Jain entology and epistemology; and his Samayasāra is full of spiritual fervour. Yativrsabha's Tilöyapannatti covers wide range of topics. The compilation of all these works might be assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era.
A good deal of Prākrit literature has grown round the canon itself by way of explanation, detailed exposition, illustrations through tales and topical systeinatisation. On some canonical texts there are the Niryuktīs, a sort of metrical commentaries which explain the topics by instituting various enquiries, They
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