Prolegomena to the analysis of deśī words in Hemacandra’s Deśīnāmamālā

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to offer the necessary theoretical and methodological considerations for undertaking the analysis of the typology of the deśī class of Prakrit words starting from Hemacandra’s Deśīnāmamālā, the most important lexicon, and almost the sole one, dealing with these specific words. The issues concerned the deśī words in Prakrit, as well as tatsama and tadbhava words, will be illustrated and analysed beginning with offering a review of the various scholars’ position on this topic. At the same time, and this is the main goal of the paper, the typology of deśī words will be investigated, this in order to understand how the heterogeneity of this specific class of Prakrit words is constructed. In this manner, we will have the opportunity to see that the scope of the tripartite classification of Prakrit words in tatsama, tadbhava and deśī is to give a tool in the hands of Indian medieval authors for comparing/understanding and/or for teaching the words used in Prakrit by means of Sanskrit words. Thanks to the proposed analysis, we will have a clearer idea of what Prakrit really was and how the perspective on considering it changed at the beginning of the first millennium in India.