________________ Introduction Sanskritisms in his Maharashtri Prakrit which he could not avoid on account of his very close familiarity with Sanskrit which was then the language of the Pandits and the living literature. It is certainly to the credit of the author that in spite of the considerations given above, he has been fairly successful in creating in his treatise the serene and dignified atmosphere of the epics, although he himself was removed from the epic period by a number of centuries. 8. Regarding the sources of the narration, which, as observed above, Sources of the story. belongs to the stock of ancient mythological stories, it is fairly certain that the story was current from very old times among the common legends and must have occupied a place in the old mythological books. No reference to it is found in the Jain canonical books. The earliest references to it are seen in the commentary literature and other books like fagtaurafa (Gathas 38, 41, 44 ) fantata41CT ( St. 3170, 3171) and starfa o ELETRITET (page 114). Our author has probably taken the story from the Sanskrit commentary of S'ubhavardhana siri on Dharmaghosha's 'Rishimandala. The text of the Rishimandala which has
