Philosophy In Jain Agams: Language of Āgama

The language of āgamas is Ardhamāgadhī. Lord Mahavira preached in this language. Ardha-Māgadhī is a form of Prakrit language.^[1] It is known as a celestial language i.e. the language spoken by the celestial deities.^[2] As per Prajñāpanā, the people using this language for communication were called as bhāṣārya i.e. sophisticated speakers.^[3] This was spoken in half of the Magadha province and is a mixture of eighteen regional languages. Ardha-Māgadhī consists of words from Magadhī language and has frequently used the deśya i.e. regional words hence it is called as ardha-māgadhī.^[4]

Disciples of Lord Mahavira were from many provinces like Magadha, Mithila, Kaushal etc. and also from different classes and castes. Hence the ancient Prakrit of Jain literature has several deśya words. Magadhā and deśya words together form the Ardha-Māgadhī language. This conviction of cūrṇī is probably the oldest one. It is also called as Arṣa^[5] which means spoken by Ṛṣies. In Ṭhānaṃ, Sanskrit and Prakrit languages are called as Ṛṣibhāṣita (spoken by Ṛṣies).^[6]  According to Ṣaṭprābhṛta ṭīkā (commentary) the language in which about fifty percent of words are from Magadha language and remaining fifty percent are from other regional language is called as Ardha-Māgadhī.^[7] The language of śvetambara Jain literature is called as Ardha-Māgadhī or ancient Prakrit.

Actually, general features of Prakrit language continuously underwent changes. The language of Jain canonical literature was folk-language i.e. Prakrit and not Sanskrit. As this folk language underwent changes, the language of āgamas also changed. As the Jain religion was spreading from the central Magadha towards the west and south zone, the words and forms of regional languages of those zones were assimilated by this language though the language was of Ardha-Magadha Prakrit in ancient times. This fact is advocated by the āgama itself, but, the currently available āgama literature does not have the characteristics of Ardha-Magadha Prakrit language literature. Proficient scholar of Jain literature, Late Monk Punyavijayaji wrote in the preface of 'Bṛhatkalpa' that - By the study of ancient manuscripts, we can clearly grasp the differences in the language and its application. We find ample pāṭhabheda (difference in text contents) and pāṭhavikāra (distortion in contents) in Niryukti, Bhāṣya, Mahabhāṣya, Cūrṇī etc. The niryukti and bhāṣya have been mutually intermixed, hence, in this situation it has become a hard task to pick the originality in the Ardha-Māgadhī Prakrit of āgamas.’’^[8]  Muni Punyavijayaji again wrote in the preface of Anuyogadvāra and Nandī. In the ancient times, the language of śvetambara āgamas was Ardha-Māgadhī Prakrit. This can be known by the āgamas itself but the Grammarians of the day consider it as Mahāraṣṭrī Prakrit. This Prakrit language is similar to the āgamas language, so scholars call this as Jain Maharashtri Prakṛit. Scholars can clearly visualize the different levels of language in āgamas. For examples, in the language of the first half and the second half of Ācārāṅga, one can clearly notice the time difference. Similar is the case with the language of Bhagavatī and Sūtṛakrtāṅga. Consistent style of language after Bhagavatī, is available in Jñātādharmakathā and others.^[9]

Pāli, the language of Tripiṭakas accepted by Hīnayāna branch of Buddhism and the Ardha-Māgadhī of Jain āgamas were considered as a form of Māgadhi language by the later Grammarians. The characteristics of Ardha-Māgadhi language presented by grammarians are found at very few places in the currently available Jain āgamas. Acharya Hemachandra has clearly stated in 'Prakrit Vyākaraṇa' that all the rules of his grammar cannot be applied on ārṣa language because there are too many exceptional cases.^[10]

The Ardha-Māgadhī or Arṣa language is considered as the original language by Jains and grammarians unanimously, on the basis of which other languages emerged. Jain tradition believes that Ardha-Māgadhī language gets transformed into the listener's own language, whether the listener is of a higher class, lower class, an animal or bird etc.^[11] The language of the currently available Jain canonical literature is the language of one thousand years after the salvation of Lord Mahavira. In this long gap of time, definitely there had been considerable changes in the language of Jain canonical literature due to the synods that had occurred during that period. The attention of commentators was directed towards this problem too. 'Slight change in the material of different texts of commentators is a proof of the language difference.' To clarify the meaning of the scriptures, the commentators had to undertake lots of changes as editing in the original language of āgamas. For example in the old manuscripts of Kalpasūtra, sometimes 'Ya'śruti-(a rule of Prakrit grammar i.e. use of ya in place of ka, ga, ca, ja, ta, da, pa, ya, va) is applied and sometimes not. Sometimes 'i' is used in place of 'Ya'. Sometimes long syllable is changed to short syllable and the opposite can also be found.’^[12] Thus in relation to the language of the Jain āgamas, it can be concluded that its original language was Ardha-Māgadhī but numerous changes have occurred with the long passage of time and it has become difficult to trace the original features of the language.