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INTRODUCTION
stereotyped aspect. It could not, therefore, be said from the nature of the Prāksta language that the author lived in a particular century. When once a language becomes stereotyped, it is used by authors belonging to different centuries in exactly the same form. It is, therefore, not safe to infer anything from the Prākrta language of Sanmati. However, this much can be said that the fact, that the peculiarities of "Da" and others freqnently found in the Prākṣta Jaina works written and pregerved in South India are not found in Sanmati, lends a colour to the belief that the work must have been written in NorthIndia or in the Western part of India. Most of the available manuscripts of this work have been found either in North India or in Western India. The commentators of this work are also found there; the frequent use of this work is also made by subsequent works in these parts of India. It can, therefore, be inferred that the present works must have been written, preserved and used in either of these too regions.
Another question arises as regards the language, and it is this that, curiously enough among the available works of Siddhasena, Sanmati is the only work written in Präkşta language. All other works have been uniformly written in Saṁsksta. Now, is it possible that the author was influenced by the current fashion in his times to write everything in Samskřta and was the author directly influenced by his profound study of Saṁskặta language and literature? We think that he was. It is a fact that whole of ancient Jaina literature was uniformly written in Prākṣta. Among the available
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