| Summary: |
In the absence of any other plausible etymology, there is thus reason to believe that the Vaitālīya metre takes its name from the subject-matter of its most important attestation in Jain literature, i.e., the destruction (vidāraṇa) of Karma. It is precisely in Jain Prakrit that we find, coupled with vestiges of Magadhi -l- for -r-, an orthographic -t- replacing -d- and the other lost intervocalic stop consonants. Appropriately, the early canonical text Uttarajjhāyā 20, v. 44, presents the veyāla as a purely destructive demon, murderous if not exorcised (avipanna).
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