Gleanings from the Kuvalayaml Kah I: Three Fragments and Specimens of the Eighteen Desabhss Author(s): Alfred Master

Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1950), pp. 410-415 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/609283 . Accessed: 13/08/2011 08:25
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Gleanings

from the Kuvalayam_ala Kahi I

Three fragments and specimens of the Eighteen Desabhasas By ALFRED MASTER ?1 SHORT account of the Kuvalayamala was given in "An Unpublished Fragment of Paisaci ", BSOAS., xii, p. 659 foil. It is dated A.D. 778 and is known from two MSS.-J dated A.D. 1083 and P undated, of which P 2 is a copy. The bulk of the work is written in Pdyaya-bhdsd,i.e. Jaina Maharastri. which Uddyotana, the Other styles are used, one of which is Avabbha.msa, author, describes as Sakkaya-Pdy'ubhaya-suddh'dsuddha-paya-samataramgaramgamtavaggiram " A spoken language rippling with even waves of Sanskrit and Prakrit words correct and incorrect ". It is therefore not the classical Apabhramsa of Hemacandra and others, which does not contain Sanskrit words apart from the tatsamas or words common to Sanskrit and Prakrit. ?2 The first and longest fragment is printed by L. B. Gandhi in GOS. 37 (G.), Intro., p. 109. The spelling is much less regular than in the Prakrit preceding and following it, and cannot be ascribed for the most part to clerical errors. The two MSS. do not differ widely. For reasons into which it is unnecessary to enter here it is clear that J and P were copied from the same MS. and neither is dependent upon the other. P 2, although an inferior MS., often usefully supplements J and in the present extract such aid is particularly welcome, as owing to the habit of readers putting a finger on the text where difficulties occur, much of the J palm-leaf has been smudged and would be almost unreadable without the help of P 2. The rotograph copy is therefore unsuitable for reproduction. As I have not always accepted the readings of G., the passage is reproducedhere with some more lines by way of introduction. BhaniyarmMdydiccena "Aho, gdma-mahattard! mahdpdvam mae kayamn ndma, td aham jaliam kudsanampavissdmi. Deha majjhapasiaha mittadojjha.m katthdimjalanam va " tti. Tau bhaniyarnekkena gdma-mahattarena(1) Edu ehau, dummanas-sahu, savvam je thuj'aaridu, tujjhanau vamka valitaum paraddhaum. Etu praim sugai, bhratu-vara, bhramti sampratu. Tau annena bhaniyam (2) "Thuja viraidu dhana-lavaya suha-lampade, etu praim dutth'attha-mana-moha-luddhaum. Tumr samprati brolitaum. Etu etu praraddhu bhallaum. Taua.nnena bhaniam cira-jara-junna-dehena(3) Ettha sujjhati kira suvannam. E vaisanara-muha-gataum, kaum pau mittassa vamcana ? Kamalia-vrata-dharane etu pau tujjhe ppanahiya ". Tau sayalaDramga-samind bhaniam jettha-mahi-mayaharena, (4) "Dhavala-vahanadhavala-dehassa siri bhrameti; ja vimala-jala-dhaval'ujjala, sa bhadari-yatiGamga pravesi tuhum, mitradrojjhu to nama sujjhati."

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" Mayaditya said ' 0 village-elders ! I have committed a great sin, that is to say, betrayal of a friend, therefore I shall enter an evil place aflame. Save my body from pains and burning.' Then a village elder said (1) 'This is so, dejected sir. All indeed is thy action. Thy destiny has turned awry. Therefore thy blameless life, excellent brother, is now confusion.' Then another said (2) 'What thou hast done is for a little wealth from lust of happiness; because of this thou wert seduced by the mental lure of wretched riches. Thou hast now transgressed. This, this is thy destiny, my friend.' Then another with a body withered by old age said, (3) 'Surely gold is purified here! 0 thou who art the mouth of the Supreme Being, how is the deceiving of a friend a sin ? By taking the vows of a Kapalika, let this sin of thine be destroyed.' Then spoke the Lord of all the Drangas, the senior High Elector, (4) ' The sheen of the white body of a draught bullock is dazzling. Do thou enter that venerable Ganges of ascetics, which gleams with the whiteness of pure water, then indeed thy betrayal of a friend is cleansed away.' " (1) ehau: cf. Hem. 4. 362 eha, eho,ehu and O.Guj. ehavau. dummanas-sdhu: The true reading is so G., but dumma- is not clear. P 2 has houmanussdharm. like savwam. is neuter life of human bhoumanussdu enjoyment; du, life, possibly but a 2. G.'s a : Hem. 217. is uncertain; if correct reading, thuj': je padapuran transliterates from Pkt. it derives tuyha), a form of Gen.-Abl. tuhya (Pischel based on Skt. mahyarm Dat.-Gen.) which passed into *tuhuya, (Pali has tuyhamn *tuhhuja, uja, cf. Marwari,Mewarithum from tuhum and Guj. tuj from *tuhuja. tujjhdnau: Gen. with -nau = O.Guj. -nau (G.). sampratu: cf. Pkt. sampayam; P 2 sa.mprai. (2) thuja: G. has thuje, but the karna of j is very faint; P 2jamji. lavdya: G. reads lavdsd ta and glosses lavasayd tathd; J lavdsd va (or ta) with sd cancelled, P 2 lavasae, which gives good sense (with the desire for), but is too easy; dsdya is a regular Pali idiom with the Dat. to express longing (W. Geiger, Pali Literatureand Language, p. 117) and lavadsya is perhaps correct. samprati: the Skt. form. brolitaum: Pkt. bolai sink, pass away, bolae transgress (Ratnachandraji); G. glosses abravth, but in that case we should expect brollitaunm, and the sense would be poor. The anusvaras may be due to attraction to turz, but the use of anusvaras is everywhere erratic. (3) e: G. reads re as P 2, but e is clear and has the same meaning. kdmdlia: J has komalia tender lady, with the karna over the matra of ko faint; possibly kdpdlia should be read, as P 2 has kdvdliya. ppandhiya (nda > ndh) is not recorded, but can be paralleled (Pisch., PG., ? 264): G. glosses pranaiksyati, but the form seems to be a 2 sg. impv.; P 2 is wildly astray with eueueu sujjhe jjandhim. Dra in Dramga is indistinct; P 2 just ga. mayaharena from matadhara-,grdma-pradhdnaHargovind Das T. Sheth, cf. Guj. matadar councillor, voter, matdddr(Persianized from matadhara)a village elector to the post of patel in certain Gujarat villages; the word should mean "property-holder" (Persian matd'ddr), but the qualification of matadars is not from property.

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bhrameti: J bhramiti corrected by later hand, from bhramita; P 2 bhramati, which may be right. bha.ddr: an Apa. word. prdvesi : a denominative. The only clue to the locality of this scene is the mention of the Dramgasvami. If Dramga is the correct reading, it may refer to the Dangs, the hilly forest region between the Surat and Nasik districts,l and Gandhi's opinion, based on the use of -nau and bhallau,that the language is that of the Gujjaras, will not be disturbed thereby. The word dramga occurs in the Kharosthi documents and is discussed by T. Burrow, Language of Khar. Doc., p. 98. He interprets it as " office ", but cannot reconcile this meaning with dramga of the Rajatarangini and udranga in Kuttanimatam and suggests that the original meaning may be " fortified place" or "elevated structure ". The latter meaning would not be too remote from that of Dang, especially as raiga is rather " arena " or " area " than " structure ". Udranga is also used in the Valabhi copper-plates of A.D. 605-10 (e.g. JJBRAS., N.S. i, 39) in the phrase sodraigamrsoparikaram, where it seems to mean a tax, and drdngika in the phrase -viniyuktaka-drdngika-mahattara-cdtabhatameaning a particular official. The language contains several Apa. features, which are common with Old Gujarati. Peculiar are the retention of Skt. ai as ai in vaisanara and the irregular alternation of -t-, -d-, and zero. P 2 has also the y-sruti and the irregularity operates for different words, so dyarium, valiyaum, gayaum, vraya; yadi with d and sugati with t. It is only the dentals which show irregularity, and we seem here to make contact with the practice of dramatic Sauraseni. Whether we take this extract as an example of Apabhra.msaprose or of written Gujjara desabhasa, it is unique. ?3 The second fragment (G. Fol. 37, Intro. p. 110) is a Doha of the regular type-6 + 4 + 3/6 + 4 + 1; the first half line ends v L, the second - u, the rime being -ei. It is introduced as follows. Java ya imam cimtei Can.daso mohienam, tdva ima.m giyayam gyyam gdmanadze, Jo jasu manusu vallahaum, tam jai annu ramei, jai so janai jivai va, to tahu prana laei. J jdsu, P 2 jasu: these are alternative forms, but the metre requires the latter. va to: G. reads patto, P 2 vi so; J is clumsily corrected with doubtful intention. "And while Candaso was thinking of her with infatuation, a village dancing girl sang this song, 'He who has a beloved one, if another woos that one, if he kuows and is alive, he will take the other's life '." " Is alive " " is a true man ". The fourteenth century Ratnaprabhasuri, who wrote an abstract of the Kuvalayamala, called Kuvalayamala-katha-samksepa, has
1

Vols. Surat, Nasik, and Khandesh. Bombay Gazetteer,

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Tavad idam natya gitam " Istam yanmanusam yasya tadanyena rameta cet/sa janannevamirsyaluradatte tasya jivitam. This has the same meaning, except that jivai va is replaced by Trsalur jealous. Possibly Ratnaprabha read Tsa-vasufor jwvai va so(to) which breaks the metre. Isa-vasu gives better sense than jivai, but the construction is awkward. The language is Apabhramsa of the classical type, but being verse is remarkable only for its date, which is the earliest recorded, the sporadic examples in the Paumacariya, Bharata's Natyasastra and the Vikramorvasiya being all under suspicion as interpolations or through uncertainty of reading or date. It is impossible to say whether the dancing girl was using her own language, but it was certainly one she understood and one which was ordinarily used for songs in small towns. ?4 The third extract (G. Fol. 47, p. 110) is also a Doha. The caesura is marked a by matra in J. It is introduced as follows:kena vi Rade puna kahimpi devaule padiuna pasutto. Rad-pacchima-jame Gujjara-pahienaimam Dhavala-duvahayamgTyam-avi ya Jo navi, vihure, visajjanau dhavalau kaddhai bharu, so gotthamgana-mandanau sesau vva jamsaru. duvahayamin the Prakrit portion is a hapax, Skt. *dvddhaka dvidhaka. It is not the Dodhaka of the Piingala, which is a 16 matra quatrain, but a Doha or Daua. visajjanau: G. has vibhajjannau against the MSS. and the metre. "Now at night he lay down in a temple and went to sleep. In the last watch of the night a Gujjara traveller sang the Bullock-couplet as follows:-' The freed bullock, 0 widow, which draws no load, is an ornament of the farm-yard, resembling, in short, the leavings of a temple-offering'." Ratnaprabha glosses, "Pascatyayame kenapi Gurjara-pathikena gitam Dhavala iva yo'tra, vidhure, svajano no bhara-karsane pravanah, sa ca kevalam bhavati ". This shows that he read gostfagana-bhuitala-vibhiusanam vi sajjanau, which does not give the best sense. He misses the allusion to the sesa or stale remnants of temple-offerings given by the priest to worshippers as sacred relics. Ratnaprabha has therefore turned the comparison of the sacred bull with a sacred but useless relic to one of a widow's useless relative with a sacred bull. The language is once more conventional Apabhramsa, associated with a Gujjara speaker. Again there is no evidence that it was a specific Desabhasa. ?5 The Eighteen Desabhasas or Desibhasas are frequently mentioned in books of the Jaina Canon (e.g. Nayadhammakahasutta) as necessary for the education of Princess Princesses, and Hetairai. Jinadasa in Nisithacurn. (G. Intro., p. 87)

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writes in A.D. 667 ahavd atthdra-desTbhdsd-niyatam Addhamdgadham,"alteris form the of standard the natively Ardha-Magadhi Eighteen Desibhasas ", the reason and others indicating kept Ardha-Magadhi why grammarians apart from the usual Tetrad (or Hexad) of ClassicalBhasas. Uddyotana, writing 100 years later, is one of the few authors who mention both the Tetrad and the Eighteen Desibhasas. But he does more than mention them, and his account of the latter (G. Fol. 131-2, p. 91) includes specimens in the shape of a word or two for each of sixteen Desabhasas, two being missing. They are introduced as follows:" So after a short time he saw a road with a market resounding with the chatter of men actively engaged in the business of buying and selling with bundles of various goods outspread. And crossing over to that place he saw some country merchants, distinguished by different Desabhasas." Then follow Arya couplets containing a description of each class of speakers, their name and word specimens. The names are Gollae (Abhira herdsmen), Majjhadese,Mdgadhe,Amtavete(? Amtaveeor -vette),K;rae (MSS. Kire, but the metre requiresanother matra: Kashmiris), Takke(Panjabis),Sendhave(Sindhis), Mdrue (Marwaris), Gujjare, Lade, Mdlave, Kannd.dae,Tdie (Tajiks or Persian Arabs), Kosalae, Marahatthe,Amdhre (an Apa. spelling: Andhras). The two missing Desabhasas are possibly Odraand Drdvid7,as in the Natyasastra. Some of the words are quite corrupt. The Gollaesay U, da, de according to J, arade P 2 and arare G. But tere, mere, au 1 of the Majjhadese may be the modern Hindi words. Kitto and kimmo may have once been Braj words, as their assignment to the Amrtavee indicates, but kittd is now Hindi, not Braj kiti for indeclinable Marathi the form), while kimmo is only represented (with ? in Hindi, while Gujarati kevo, kem much the how indeclinable form kimi by are respectively declinable and indeclinable forms of Apa. kemva, kema, which also appear as kima, kimva. Eham, tiham (Takke) are close to Panjabi eha, teha, this, that. The Sendhavevaudayamedoes not scan, but vahud.isandyami my bride, scans and has a meaning, which P 2 vamsedaino has not. Appd, we (incl.) and tuppd (? we, you) assigned to the Mdrue recall Marwari adpdm and the are not bhallau Re, typical, (Gujjare) Manjhi-Panjabi tupa you (LSI). identification of nau with the Genitive suffix -nau in Old Gujarati is very uncertain. The Lade dhamha, tumham (emended to fit the metre) resemble forms found in Old Gujarati and dmhd is found in the Arda Viraf (1415 A.D.) written in the Surat area. The Mdlave words bhdua, bhai.n, tumhe are not distinctive and occur in Ardha-Magadhi. Adri, pondi, mare (P 2 adi, pdn.di, ramare)are not Kanarese, but reading adi (metricausa) the first two words are good Telugu for "that, go ". Isi, kisi, misi (Tdie) suggest Perso-Arabic kismis currants, but the three words seem to formthe same phraseas in asi-masikasi-vdnijja-sippa-samgaydin the Samaraiccakaha of Haribhadra (Bib. Ind. 169, p. 2, 17) " concerned with asi-masi-kasi, trade and handicrafts", which is
1 Most of the specimens appear as homogeneous pairs with, if needed, a third word as makeweight (pada-pirana).

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unsatisfactorily translated by the commentators as " sword, ink, and cultivation ". The Kosalae jala, tala are suggestive of the Chattisgarhijeld, teld (acc. of the relative and correlative pronouns), used in an area formerly known as Maha-Kosala. The Marahatthe words dinnalle, gahiyalle (the reading of P 2 is required by the metre and gahille, the reading of J, means " possessed (of a devil)" and does not correspond to dinnalle) are not found in Pkt. or Apa., although possible forms, and only d7nhaldoccurs in the oldest Marathi, while didhalem is frequent in the Jnanesvari. There is a close connection between all these forms. The Andhre words adi, puti, ratirm may be intended for Telugu adi, pondi, randi that, go, come, and Hem. Des., vi, 51, has punde go; P 2 has atthinmadhi. In prose at the end of the couplets are added the names of three non-Aryan peoples: the Khasas, a mountain tribe mentioned in the Panhavagaran.aim, the Markandeya Purana, and the epics; the Parasas, inhabitants of Pars or Fars; and the Babbaras, who are mentioned in the Jaina Canon and elsewhere, but are unidentified. To sum up, the words are few, isolated, and often of uncertain meaning. But some important points emerge :-(i) There is no sign of recognition of the simplification of geminate consonants and compensatory vowel lengthening; (ii) only a few of the words are Prakrit; (iii) there is a reasonably close correspondence of identifiable words with those now used. And in spite of changes in the number and constitution of the Desibhasas, there emerges a continuity, which appears, for example, in the -e termination (probably dir. pl. masc.) of the Madhyadesa and the Marahatthas as contrasted with the -o and -au (dir. sg. masc.) of the Antavedans and Gujjaras. The Desibhasas were dialects rather than languages if, as it appears, they depended for their literary medium on an Apabhramsa which, in its early stages, allowed a great variety of inflexions and vocabulary. The absence of Apabhramsa prose shows that it was not used as a medium of oral communication, as were Maharastriand other Middle Indian languages. It is hoped to deal with this question in a subsequent paper.