18
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
lent descriptions of the grammatical structure of these dialects, it is to be regretted that only a very small portion of their stock of words has become known. Our ignorance of the Prakrit vocabulary is partly owing to the circumstance that, besides the Prakrit passages of the Sans krit dramas—if we except the Buddhistic Pāli
writings—a portion only of one larger Prakrit
[JANCARy, 1873.
the Desi words with Prakrit equivalents, the MS. contains a Sanskrit commentary. The latter explains each Deši word in Sanskrit, and contains also frequently discussions on doubt ful forms. At the end of the explanation of each verse, one or two Prakrit sentences have been added, in order to illustrate the use of the
student of the Prakrits as the Amarakosha and
Desis explained. Thus each word is repeated three times. The book is divided into eight Vargas, viz. –I. Swaravarga ; II. Words begin ning with gutturals; III. Words beginning with palatals; IV. Words beginning with linguals; W. Words beginning with dentals; WI. Words beginning with labials; VII. Words beginning with the liquids ra, la, ra; VIII. Words
kindred works did and still do to the Sanskritist.
beginning with sa and ha.
The method of teaching in the Brahmanical schools, as well as the testimony of various writ ers, make it certaint that such vocabularies ex isted and were accessible very recently. But no work of the kind has, to my knowledge, as yet
letter are arranged according to their length, and according to their meaning. First come those that have only one meaning, in the order
work has been edited.” Sanskritists are deterred
from the task by the paucity and bad condition of the Prakrit MSS. But another equally im portant obstacle to a fuller exploration of the Prakrits is the entire want of native vocabula
ries, which could do the same service to the
The words under each
of bisyllabics, trisyllabics, tetrasyllabics, and so
I am happy to be able, to a certain extent, to fill this gap in our knowledge of the literature
forth ; and the words having more than one meaning make the conclusion. The first four verses of the text give the defi nition of the term Deši, and define the scope of
of the Prakrits, as I have recently obtained a
the work.
been made known.
copy of a Dešišabdasamgraha, written by the famous Jaina Polyhistor of the twelfth century, Hemachandra or Hemāchārya, which contains about 4,000 Prakrit words, together with expla– nations in Sanskrit. The MS., of which I have obtained a loan only for transcription, comprises according to the colophon 3,325 slokas (agglo merations of 32 syllables each) on 74 folios. Its date is Samvat 1587.
It is correct and in
They run as follows:–
THOTTTTTTTRT HfqafèqqāšāTHREEET | STI; fºſſitatuſ aſūtūTſūāfruſtfäufi apºſſ lºll
ièRTHºrāśrºſsgåut firrºrs &éârână quºtºngsåſ 1*I.
- awaii at füri Ti ſãat urūfīsīrg.
good preservation, except that the upper edges of some leaves have been gnawed by rats, whereby
uſq. ITTUTECHTRifröTAT â gs FFIET ||all
in one instance two half lines and on several
Bañāāſār; Tºſhi'ſ witHI #
pages a few letters have been lost. It is writ ten in Devanāgari characters, but presents the
arst stuſ;HRTTT; TúTââûâû &üt 19 |
archaic forms of letters usual in Jaina MSS.
‘Glory to the language of the Jinendras, which is difficult on account of the employment of parallel passages not explained by the com mentators (gama)," of categories** and of proofs, the secrets of which got to the hearts of the wise, and which comprises all other, languages.ff
Hence it is frequently very difficult to distin guish between u and o, between tth and chehh, and between jjh and bbh.
Besides the text of the Desjsabdasamgraha, which is written in Prakrit Aryas and gives
- I mean Hälä’s Gāthākosha, a part of which was pub
lished, together with a German translation by Prof. A. Weber, in the Abhandlungen der D. M. Ges. 1870.
+ E. g., of Bhànudikshita, who quotes a Desikosha in his commentary on the Amarakosha, Aufrecht, Cay. Cat., . p :182a. Both text and commentary are Hemachandra's work as may be seen from the introductory verse:–Desi duhsanda bhā pratyah sandarbhitapi durbodhā | A chartyahemachandrastattām sandribhati vibhajati vai, and from the colophon of the book,-ityāchārtya Sri Hema chandravirachita svopajuadhesisamgraha writtàwashtamo wargah saināptah|
Wiraijiai jai–MS. Suhasañ may also be read suhau. | The metre is Giti or Udgāthā. Tātparyabhedinah sadris'apāthāh '
-
- Naya vastve kades agrâhimah syādvādā virodhinobhi
prāyavishes'ah naigamasamgrahavyavahār ari just tras'abdasamabhirāt dhãe vambhūtabhidhãnãh || utkarsho yādas'eshabhāshārūpatvena parina ++
Alan
mate
yadaha devă daivin nará nárim sabaraschäpi sãbarim | Tirtyanchopi tairaschim menire bhagavadgiram || 'evambhuta jinendrăgăln arhatam vaqi jayatiti samban