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literature of India. We kuow from quotations in old books that from the early centuries of our Era down to the 10th century and later there existed a large Prakrit literature destined for the cultivated classes who were not able to read works in classical Sanskrit. But of this vast literature only a few works in highly refined style akin to the Mahakavya of classical Sanskrit literature have been preserved; all the rest has been allowed to fall into oblivion and to disappear for ever. We should even not know what kind of works they were, if the Jains had not preserved some of their Prakrit works poems and romances. I first mention the “ Paumachariya" the first Prakrit Kavys we possess; for it pretends to be composed near the beginning of our era. It is in a fluent epic style and may be regarded as a remnant of vast epic literature in Prakrit which has totally been lost. The author apparently imitated existing models; he is certainly not the first who wrote a Prakrit epic Besides the epic literature and probably later in times there came into existence an extensive literature of works of fiction, both in prose and in verse. This much we know from occasional remarks of authors on ‘alankara.' But the works which they were thinking of when they made those remarks have long since been
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
