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BṚHAT-KATHAKOSA
nuous section from HK, roughly Nos. 13 to 56; among the stories repeated in both the parts, the one in the second or supplementary section agrees more closely with that of HK in its narrative sequence and phraseology (HK. No. 45 and PK Nos. 19 and 90*22; etc.); and lastly, at least in a few places (Notes on No. 13) we can lay our finger on identical expressions. These facts lead me to a tentative conclusion that Prabhăcandra might have used HK, in addition to his other sources, at the time of adding these supplementary stories. Thus the common stories between HK and PK go back to an identical source, directly or indirectly; but the stories from the supplementary section of PK do betray, in all probability, the influence of HK.
194
vi) On the Language of the Text
We use the designation Classical Sanskrit' for that phase of the language which has been standardised by Panini and his followers in their grammatical treatises, and which is represented by artistic and ornate compositions so successfully attempted by eminent authors like Kalidasa, Bāņa and others. Panini's norm of correct speech is the one sanctioned by Sistas, and consequently the works of Kalidasa, Bāņa etc. can be enjoyed and appreciated by intellectual aristocrats who are already trained in the niceties of language and diction. Panini and his immediate commentators are primarily concerned with maintaining a refined standard of language from which are eschewed all 'vulgarisms' current in the world or in ordinary life of the uninstructed populace; and naturally, therefore, the texts in classical Sanskrit have no special appeal to the uneducated masses as distinguished from the instructed classes and audiences of experts.
We need not doubt that Sanskrit was a spoken language, may be in restricted sections of the society and for religious and scholastic purposes. It is difficult to believe that the spoken language was of the type of, much less identical with, what we come across in the works of Bana, Bhavabhuti and others who must have mastered the grammar and crammed the lexicons before they developed such an elaborate style, with its mechanisms like Samdhi, monstrous compounds and artificial minting of meanings, where elegance and brevity were achieved by sacrificing naturalness and clearness. Whenever the social circle of appeal was wider and the subject-matter was more popular and less scholastic, the degree of the standard of refinement was bound to be lowered down; and the popular speech was bound to develop solecisms, both regional and temporal, which would quietly creep into popular works. Side by side with the refined phase of the language, which
1 Wackernagel: Altindische Grammatik, vol. I, pp. IX-LXXIV; Macdonell: A History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 22-28; Keith: A History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 1-36; Chatterji: The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, Introduction; Bloch: L'Indo-Aryen du Veda aux Temps Modernes, Paris 1934, especially the Introductory portion; Chatterji: Indo-Aryan and Hindi, Ahmedabad 1942, Lectures II-IV.
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