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16
Mahavira and His Relevance
languages. Of course, Bharata in his Natyasastra' has laid down that the main Prakrit dialect in dramas should be Sauraseni:
शौरसेनी पुरस्कृत्य भाषाकार्या तु नाटके |
This dialect, being nearest to Sanskrit, was easily understandable and also was the central of all Prakrit dialects.
In my opinion the Apabhramsa language is a forerunner of all modern Indo-Aryan Languages, and has its counterparts in old Rajasthānī as in Dholla-Māru or Prthviraja Raso, old Gujarati in the numerous pieces going under the name of Rasakas. I have come across the writings of Mr. R. C. Dhere who gave the name of old Marathi to the Apabhraṁśa language of Puspandanta's Mahāpurāna. We have yet to see to what extent the interest of these champions of modern Indo-Aryan language is really deep in the Apabhramsa language, for in my opinion, Apabhraṁśa, Prākrit cannot be correctly understood without a corresponding study of other Prakrit dialects. Nay, I may go still further and say that none of the Prakrit languages can be correctly understood without a proper backing of Sanskrit. Similarly I may say that our Sanskrit scholarship cannot attain its natural depth without the study of Prakrits including Pali. It is a great mistake to imagine that scholarship in the middle and modern Indo-Aryan languages is complete only with the knowledge of Sanskrit, as all such scholarship is superficial without the study of Prakrits.
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