Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c8.6

c8.6

Vararuchi devotes the first nine chapters of his work to the Mahârâshṭrî, and then a chapter each to the rest. The peculiarities only of the latter dialects and their differences from the Mahârâshṭrî are given, and in other respects they are to be considered similar to the first. Hemachandra follows the same method; but he does not mention the name Mahârâshṭrî and speaks of the dialect only as the Prâkṛit. These grammarians and all others who have written on the subject treat of the grammar of the language etymologically. They take Sanskrit as the original language or Prakriti and give rules about the various phonetical and grammatical changes which have reduced Sanskrit to the Prâkṛit form. The Pâli grammarian Kachchâyana treats the dialect not as one derived from Sanskrit as these writers do, but as an independent language, though it is very probable he knew Sanskrit, since he uses Sanskrit grammatical terms, and his Sûtras greatly resemble those in the Kâtantra and even Pâṇini. Vararuchi and Hemachandra derive S'aurasenî also from the Sanskrit as they do the Mahârâshṭrî or the principal Prâkṛit, but make the S'aurasenî the Prakriti or basis of the Mâgadhî and the Pais'âchî. This appears to be the tradition; whence it would seem that older and more developed language or the language of respectable people was the S'aurasenî, and the other two were the dialects of border countries used by persons in a lower scale of society. They have some of the peculiarities of the S'aurasenî, and come nearer to it than to the Mahârâshṭrî. Hemachandra gives the grammar of two more dialects, the Chûlikâ Pais'âchî and the Apabhrams'a, the latter of which was according to Daṇḍin, the language of Âbhîras (cowherds) and others. Another grammarian of the name of Trivikrama gives in his Prâkṛitasûtravṛitti the grammar of these six dialects. He lived after Hemachandra, since he mentions him in the introduction to his work, and his book resembles Hemachandra’s a good deal. There is another work by Chandra called Shaḍbhâshâchandrikâ which is a meagre production. Another still of the same nature, the author of which is Lakshmîdhara, mentions the same six dialects; so that the expression Shaḍbhâshâ seems to have become proverbial.