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INTRODUCTION
51
passage was learnt, its Sanskrit equivalent was thought of, thus Sanskrit occupied a greater hold on the minds of scholars than the Prākrit did. It is the pre-eminence of Sanskrit over Prākrit that probably led the later grammarians to postulate the theory that Sanskrit was the origin of Prākrit.
16. Another point in asserting Sanskrit as the origin of Prākrit may not be lost sight of. As I have already stated earlier, even after so many disputes over the origin of Prākrit, eminent linguists still believe that Prākrit originated from Sanskrit. Dr. S. K. CHATERJI seems to subscribe to this view.18 Modern critics are too rigid in taking Sanskrit in its narrower sense, i. e., the language of Pāṇini and Patañjali. But if we go back a little and take Sanskrit in its broader sense, i.e., the Vedic ( chāndasa ) and Classical (laukika ) taken to. gether, we can see how much closer Prākrit would seem to Sanskrit. Many grammatical varieties, obsolete in classical stage, are still retained in Prākrit which we have already seen previously. Thus these Prākrit equivalents are the direct descendants of the Vedic forms which had already become out of use in Pāṇini's time. The same may be said of the so-called Desi or Deśya words, the originals of which may go back to Vedic or even Pre-Vedic times, a fact which has been frankly admitted by no less a scholar than GRIERSON 19. The so-called Dravidian elements found in Prākrit dia
18. See Lecture III, “Sanskrit in India and Greater India; and the Development of Middle Indo-Argan” -Indo-Aryan and Hindi, p. 66 ff.
19. Prakrit languages-Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. XVIII, pp. 415-18.
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