The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c5.42

c5.42

Jain Sanskrit in the Stories, according to HERTEL, is a common people's language with its usual carelessness and some borrowings from Prakrit or from the author's provincial tongue; it must not be measured by the standard of classical Bhāratī. This definition serves to weaken a severe judgment pronounced by BÜHLER (loc. cit. p. 14). At other places in scholarly literature, too, peculiarities of Jain Sanskrit have been noted down. BLOOMFIELD in the second of four systematical collections¹ has pointed out, (1) the influence of Prakrit and an early stage of New Indian (Gujarati and Marathi) already mentioned, (2) in some cases hyper-sanskritization of words apparently Prakritic, (3) borrowings from dictionaries and grammars, (4) use of words of un-known origin. Apart from Amitagati's Dharmaparīkṣā (ed. MIRONOW) this judgment was based upon Śvetāmbara works. A description of the origin and progress of linguistic studies in the Prakrits (Ardhamāgadhī, Jaina-Māhārāṣṭrī, Jaina Śaurasenī) and Apabhraṃśas in Jain literature is beyond the scope of this book.