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The Navangi commentator Acharya Abhaydeva Suri, in the *Aupapatik Sutra*, while describing the language of Lord Mahavira's teachings, has described Ardhamagadhi as a language that uses the sounds 'l' and 'sh' sometimes, as they are used in Magadhi, and mostly uses Prakrit.
In the commentary on the *Vyakhyaprajnapti Sutra*, he has also mentioned that Ardhamagadhi has some characteristics of Magadhi and some of Prakrit.
Acharya Abhaydeva has probably used the term Prakrit here for Shauraseni. Shauraseni Prakrit may have been more prevalent in his time.
Acharya Hemachandra, in his *Prakrit Vyakaran*, has called Ardhamagadhi *Aarsh* (the language of the Rishis). He has written that all the rules of grammar do not apply to the *Aarsh* language, because it has many variations.
This means that Ardhamagadhi is a mixture of other Prakrits.
Another Prakrit grammarian, Markandeya, has mentioned about Ardhamagadhi that it is very close to Shauraseni, meaning that it has many characteristics of Shauraseni. This also means that it is called Ardhamagadhi because it has many characteristics of Shauraseni and some of Magadhi.
Kramadisvara has mentioned that Ardhamagadhi is a mixture of Magadhi and Maharashtri. This also implies that Ardhamagadhi is a mixture of Magadhi, Shauraseni and Maharashtri. In the *Nishitchurni*, it is mentioned about Ardhamagadhi that it was the language spoken in half of Magadha and it was a mixture of twenty-eight regional languages.
From these descriptions, it appears that Ardhamagadhi was used as a *lingua franca* in the Prakrit region at that time, which continued for some centuries later. According to some scholars, this was the original language of the Ashokan inscriptions, which was transformed into local forms.
Lord Mahavira used such a language as the medium of his teachings, which was accessible to the common people.