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INTRODUCTION
is wellnigh impossible to get any idea of the original Māgadhi, the spoken language of Magadha. We may get a trace of it here and there, but these attempts are all guesses in the realm of probability. With us to-day, and especially with Rāma Pāņivāda, names like Sauraseni are conventional Prakrit dialects stereotyped and standardised by grammarians and playwrights. Rama Pāņiväda composed this work after studying the language from grammars and literature.
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Rāma Pāņivāda is not explicit about the dialect in which he wrote Kamsavaho. As I understand, he simply hints that it is a Prakrit poem (iv. 48*1). To-day we are accustomed to the terminology of Prakrit dialects used by grammarians like Vararuci, Hemacandra and others and lately set on a scientific footing by PISCHEL who, for the first time, took an extensive linguistic survey of Prakrits with a marvellous critical acumen. So, in the light of the present terminology and material, we shall see whether our author is writing in Magadhi, Šauraseni or Māhārāṣṭrī; and if he shows any dialectal admixture, to what extent can we ascertain it.
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The material afforded by Prakrit literature and by the Prakrit grammars is such that it is always difficult to state individual exclusive characteristics of any dialect. When distinguishing one dialect from others what can be done at the best is to note essential characteristics not singly but along with other features of that dialect. By exclusive characteristics I mean those traits which exclusively belong to one dialect and are not found in any other dialects. For instance, use of the palatal sibilant alone is an exclusive characteristic of Magadhi. In distinguishing one Prakrit dialect from the other, we may state a few essential characteristics of different dialects; and all of them together characterise a particular dialect.
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