Eternal Sanskrit and the meaning of the tripartite Prakrit terminology tatsama, tadbhava and deśī

Abstract

The majority of scholars have used the well-known traditional classification of Prakrit words in tatsama, tadbhava, deśī in the context of historical linguistics. Therefore they have the tendency to identify tadbhava words with words inherited from Old-Indo-Aryan by Middle-Indo-Aryan and/or New-Indo-Aryan and deśī words with non-Indo-Aryan element in Indo-Aryan. The aim of this contribution is to explain that they are not completely correct through the study of the meaning of the term deśī according to ancient Indian grammarians, in particular according to Hemacandra in his deśī-kośa, the Deśīnāmamālā. From the analysis of the typology of words covered by the definition of deśīśabda provided by this author, it is possible to assert that deśī words are not all non-Indo-Aryan. Hemacandra wanted to teach Prakrits on the basis of knowledge of Sanskrit. Thus, with his Prakrit grammar, the Siddha-hema-śabdānuśāsana, he offers a set of rules to “convert” Sanskrit into Prakrits, whereas for all Prakrit neologisms he offers his Deśīnāmamālā.