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CAMDALERA
d) PRĀKRITS IN THE DRAMA The extensive population of Indian sub-continent has been, especially in early days and all along, divided into linguistic units and sub-units according to the languages and dialects. The linguistic compartments are due partly to geographical area, religious grouping, social strata, race-clan distinctions, professional guilds etc.; and naturally there has been ample margin and definite scope for crosscurrent influences. The population presents a veritable m of languages and dialects. When viewed historically, we see further a cleavage between popular speeches and literary languages; at times the same language may present these phases side by side. The literary languages under grammatical restrictions get fossilised and become stagnant as book-languages: they are now and then imitated in writing by men of letters who otherwise use popular languages for their day-to-day use. The popular dialects flow along their own currents; and now and then some of its stages are raised to a literary status which survives as a book-language. This process is going on for the last few thousand years over a vast area, as evidenced by literary records of different ages and places, beginning with Veda and upto modern times.
The Indo-Aryan speech,' to put in broad terms, has flowed in two beds, Samskrta and Prākrta which have constantly influenced each other at different stages. The term Prākrta (spelt as Prākrit) meaning, natural' .common' etc. primarily indicates uncultured popular dialects, existing side by side with Saṁskṛta (spelt as Sanskrit), the accurately made,' polished' and refined' speech, The Prakrits, to begin with, are the dialects of unlettered masses used by them for their secular communication in their every day life: while Sanskrit is the language of the intellectual aristocrat, the priest, pundit or prince, who used it for religious and learned purposes. The language of every day conversation of even these must have been nearer the popular Prākrits than the literary Sanskrit. The former is a natural acquisition; and the latter, the principal literary form of speech, requires training in grammatical and phonetic niceties.
Contemporary with the Vedic language, which is an artistic speech employed by the priest in his religious songs, there were
1
Here I am quoting a few remarks from my essay on Prăkrit Literature, contributed to the Cyclopedio History or Dictionary of World Literature which is being edited by Mr. Joseph T Shipley, U. S. A.
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