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PREFACE
Prakrit and Apabhraíía, not to be knowing Sanskrit appeared next to impossible in those times. Thus this much we can say on good grounds that Abdala Raharāna was very learned. He had composed many poems, songs etc. in chaste Prakrit. The cultured and the élite of that period considered Prakrit as a language of the yesterday which was a valuable source of literary enjoyment by virtue of its literature of tenderness and beauty. But only those could properly understand that language who had studied well its grammar and literature and who were otherwise also well-red. For the averagely-educated and uninitiated, Prakrit had become somewhat difficult to grasp. Consequently to cater to the contemporary literay demand, the authors had to write their works in Apabhramśa also which was the literary dialect of the time accessible to the common people. Actuated by some such motive Abdala Rahamāna seems to have composed his poem in the popularly current dialect of Apabhramśa. Hence he expresses his apprehension that the highly learned the well-educated would not touch his work considering it to be mediocre or worthless, while those who are quite illiterate would not understand this and so they also cannot be expected to eagerly welcome this. But those who are neither ignorant, nor very learned, will certainly read this poem frequently.
By this time Apabhramsa also had acquired such a status in the literary world as could place it side by side with Sanskrit, Prakrit and Paiśācī which possessed rich literatures. There were two styles of Apabhraṁsa then current: the 'classical style' and the 'popular style', called Gramya Apabhrarisa by Hemacandra in his Kūvyānu-sāsana. The former style was, like Prakrit, characterised by well-defined and rigid grammatical rules and in it were composed in a tone of elegence great epics and voluminous narratives. The other style was like the unsophisticated people, direct, natural, uncomplicated and characterised by a flexible grammar. We can place Sardesarrāsaka in this second category of the works in the popular style. Its language and sentiments earmark it as meant for the common people. Fortunately now we have come to possess a good number of Apabhramsa works written in the classical style, but we have not been so far similarly lucky in coming across works in the popular style which are very important and useful in the study
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