બૌદ્ધ પ્રામાણ્યનું ભાસર્વજ્ઞ કરેલું ખંડન

Summary

Laxman N. Trivedi’s contribution is a study of the medieval grammatical treatise ‘Bhāṣābhūṣaṇa’ in the context of Gaur Prakrit, a dialect spoken in eastern India. The author begins by introducing the text and its uncertain authorship, noting that some scholars attribute it to the Jain monk Hemacandra while others argue for a later compiler. Trivedi situates the work among other grammatical compendia and raises the question whether the text should be regarded as a comprehensive grammar or merely as a ‘khaṇḍa’—a fragment dealing with select topics. The study proceeds to analyse the structure of the treatise. Trivedi lists the various chapters and shows that they correspond to specific linguistic categories, such as nominal declension, verb conjugation and sandhi rules, but that several expected topics—particularly phonetics and prosody—are absent. By comparing ‘Bhāṣābhūṣaṇa’ with Hemacandra’s ‘Śabdānuśāsana’ and the ‘Siddha‑Hemacandra,’ the article argues that the anonymous compiler abridged existing grammars to produce a manual for monks and scribes rather than a complete linguistic theory. Extensive tables in the article map the grammatical rules of Gaur Prakrit against their Sanskrit counterparts, illustrating innovations like the simplification of consonant clusters and the use of proclitic particles. Trivedi also explores how the treatise treats loanwords from regional languages, demonstrating the permeability of linguistic boundaries in medieval eastern India. A final section considers the reception of ‘Bhāṣābhūṣaṇa’; Jain, Buddhist and Brahmanical scholars cited it for specific rules but criticized its omissions. The author concludes that while the treatise is not a full grammar, it is valuable as evidence of pedagogical practices and linguistic variation. He calls for a critical edition and translation that would clarify its place in the history of Indo‑Aryan grammars.