इस अंक के सहयोगी रचनाकार

Summary

The study examines the linguistic development of Prakrit languages, focusing on three principal forms: Pali, Shauraseni, and Ardhamagadhi. These languages were first adopted by Buddha and Mahavira for their religious teachings and later recognized by linguists and grammarians as canonical languages. They evolved regionally and are considered pillars of ancient culture, with their literary heritage extending compassion to all beings. Among these, Shauraseni Prakrit holds significant historical and linguistic importance, with evidence of its antiquity found in Ashoka's inscriptions and the Girnar edicts. It was widely used in Sanskrit dramas for characters such as queens and servants, as it was simpler and more accessible than Sanskrit. The analysis focuses on the linguistic features of Acharya Kundakunda's Ashtapahud texts, which are written in Shauraseni Prakrit mixed with Apabhramsha. These texts show distinct characteristics, including the loss of case endings, a feature not typical of standard Prakrit but present in Apabhramsha. Examples illustrate the dropping of case markers in various declensions, such as the nominative singular and plural, accusative, dative, and genitive cases. Additionally, vowel length changes occur, with long vowels shortened and short vowels lengthened, as seen in words like "tesi" and "panca-mahavvayajutto." The texts also exhibit sound insertions (agama), deletions (lopa), and vowel insertion (svara-bhakti). Grammatical analysis reveals unique usages, such as the "u" suffix in the nominative singular, irregular third-person plural endings, and alternative case forms in the instrumental, ablative, and locative. Verb forms show present tense variations, future tense with "hi" suffix, and imperative forms with "i" or "u" endings. Participial and derivative suffixes like "evi" and "tta" are used, along with regional (deshi) words. These linguistic features confirm that Apabhramsha was already a literary language by Kundak