The Mantrāṅkam Paribhāṣa from a Historical Linguistics Perspective

Abstract

The transliterated text is based on the print version of the paribhāṣa published by P. K. Narayanan Nambiar 1980. The paribhāṣa is designated by the performers as kṛtrima-prākṛta-malayāḷam, an artificial ‘Prakrit-Malayalam’. While it is clearly stylized so as to serve representational concerns, which impact on the interpretations, it involves also dialectical and archaic linguistic features, which impact on the interpretation of the text both diachronically and synchronically. Some features are archaic, some are regional or caste-oriented and some are idiosyncratic. The author takes us through the various features in the paribhāṣa and summarizes by informing us that the dialectical features are possibly used in an attempt to render the character of the jester friendly to Malayalam speakers in the audience, regardless of their command of Sanskrit or of the hand-gesture language. The idiosyncratic features are probably aimed at ridiculing the Sanskrit enthusiast Brahmins in the audience.