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the first instance, languages of the people, and not the religious or carned languages cultivated only by a select few. .
Though it is language of the Jaina scriptures Prakrit has maintained its secular character throughout the courss of history'.
The Pșhatkathā of Gunadhya in the Paiłaci Prālirit, a great : store-house of entertaining tales, praised by ancient writers like Bana, Sabandhu and Danain and also to comparatively later authors like Hemacandra and Somesara, tliough irretric:ably lost for the last scieral centuries, lives through Pral:rit version like the Vasudeva-Hingi of Sarghadāsa anri Dharmasena and Sanskrit epitomes by Budhasvāmin, Somadeva and Ksemendra. Dșhattatha, though lost, lives still through the numerous Kávyas and Xatakas in Sanskrit, which have drawn upon it for their themes and is also present in the foll-tales of India. I have already referred to the Gathāsaptašati, which was a collection of Buktakas. In later timss Prakrit, like Sansluit, becams a cultivated literary language and several fahákávyas Wete Composed in its most accepted literary form, víz., Mahārāstri Prāyrit, which was considered the Prakrit par excellence. Galgaraho of Vakgatirăja and Setubandha of Pravarasena are tro instances to the point. There is a variety or play entirely in Prakrit, viz., Sattaka, accepted by Sanskrit dramatic theory, and the Karpūramañjari oi kajasthara, Rambhāmaijari of inayarandra, Candralekhā of Rudradāsa 2nd Anandasundari o Glanaśyāma are a fer well-known specimens of that form. A fairiy large amount of secular literature in Prakrit is still extant, and most of the principal Prakrit grammars, Ezcept those of Canda, Hika, Trivikrama, Srutasägara, Samantabhadra, Subliacandra and Herzcanisa, were composd by the non-Jaina authors. This is a gathering of experts, and I am not here to give an outline of Prālrit literature, but these few instances will be helpful in showing that though the Jaina scriptures were Composed in Prakrit in its ārza or archaic form, other varieties were largely employed in producing a wealth of secular litera. ture of remarkable postic mcrit. These literary productions in
