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Xxxviii
INTRODUCTION
IV. 24, VII 4, and (2) that stanzas are broken up by the interposition of prose passages, e g. in Mv I 53, II 50, IV. 41, VI. 6, 7, 38, 45, in Māl. III 18, V 25, in Utt. III, 6, 20, 40, IV. 24.
f. His knowledge of Prakrits In his Mv. Bhavabhūti uses Prakrit very sparingly, so much so that Acts III and V, and the second half of Act VI are quite free from Prakrit In Act IV it appears in the Interlude, and in two speeches of Śūrpanakhā and Sītā, and in Act I there are a few short Prakrit passages The language is very simple and except in a couple of speeches in the whole of the drama the author shows no inclination to use long compounds. The same remark applies to the Utt, where Acts II, V, and VI (excepting the Interlude) contain no Prakrit passages It is, however, quite different with his Māl. in which Prakrit appears in nine out of the ten Acts (Act IX having none), while in Acts III and VII we come across long speeches consisting of big compounds, which sometimes run to at least two lines.
It would not be out of place to mention here the important Prakıt peculiarities which I have noticed in Mv
a. The author confuses the two Prakrits Sauraseni and Māhārāstrī, so that in the case of certain words we find Prakrit doublets, the Saurasenī having been used in some places, and the Māhārāstrī making its appearance in others, thus, eg, we find vattad on p 38,1 2, and vattar on p 47,1 5, disadu on p 200, 1. 14, and disar on p 195, 1, 2, p. 202, 1 3, auha on p 93, 1.3, and aha on p. 88,1 3, jana on p 189, 1.1, p. 209,1 12, and ana on p 187, 1. 5
In one instance I have noticed the Māgadhi form kumāla 1 appearing by the side of the Sauraseni kumāra. The Ardhamāgadhi va side by side with the Sauraseni vra is more common.
Besides these Prakrit doublets, we find him using in some cases the Māhārāstrī form only in place of the Sauraseni. Examples are veanā for vedanā, p 38, 1 3, pasara for pasarzda, p 47, l. 7, sajjur for sajjadi, p. 15,1 10, bharia for bharida, p 56,1 3, ohasar for ohasadi, p. 56,1 4, visamvadar for visamvadadı, p 85,1 9, āvesia for āvesrda, p. 107, 17 It is worthy of note that in all these cases d has been dropped 'We also find the Māhārāstrī forms draha, p 158, 1 6, and kaham
b Again, he uses the double Saurasenī forms, as we found in mahānubhāva and mahānuhāva, abhioo and ahroa, vibhīsana and vihisana , pakkha and vakkha , Jevva and evua.
In declension he uses the locative termination mmi side by side with the very common ending e, thus we have nokhilammi, p 157, 1.7, Jalammi,
1 See Index of Prakrit Words' foi eferences.
