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Vol. XV, No. 4
to register (these rules) both with (the addition of) reasons and
according to the letter.
After Asokan Inscription, there is an inscription found in the eastern region, commonly known as “Sutanukā inscription" dated 3rd century B.C, which is given below :
<Šutanuka nama deyadašikyi19 tam kamayitha balanaśéyé
Devadiné nama lupadakhé> (=<Sutanukā nāma deva dāśikyī, tam kāmayittha Bālānaśēy? Devadinnē nāma lūpa-dakkhē>, in Sanskrit - <Sutanuka nāma dēvadāsikā tām akāmayista Vāräņasēyah Deva-datto nāma rūpa-dakşaḥ>)
Sutanukā by name, a hand maid of the Gods (=temple-dancer), her loved he of Benaras, Devadinna by name, skilled in forms (=painter or sculptor ? skillled in figures or accunts ?).
"The long vowels and double consonants are not shown in the original in the Jogimara cave on Rāmgarh Hill. The inscription is not old Brāhmi characters. The dialect is the old Magadhi. The meaning of lūpadakkhe (rūpadakşo) is doubt-ful : "skilled in painting" cf. (rūpakệt) have been suggested. Bālānaśēyē 'belonging to Benaras'. Kāmayittha. third person singular aorist, as an AMg''. 20
SANSKRIT DRAMAS The real specimens of Mg. prakrit are found in Sanskrit dramas. From the time of Ašvaghoşa (1st century A.D.) down to the time of Kālidāsa (5th/6th century A.D.) or even later than that till 1000 A.D., Mg. specimens are found in the respective Sanskrit dramas.
In Aśvaghoșa's 'sāriputra prakaraņa31, though fragmentary, some specimens of Mg. are found. Though the features which the later prakrit grammarians sanction, are not fully available in Ašvaghoşa's drama as in the case of Asokan edicts, the passages of Mg. prakrit in the sāriputra prakarana are the earliest specimen of Mg literature.
In the 'sāriputra prakarāņa", three prakrits are used of which one is Mg. which is spoken by the Duşta. It may be said in other way that the utterence of the Duşta is almost analogous to Mg. which is not very much differenf from Mg. described by the prakrit grmmarians. The features of Mg. which it maintains is l in place of r and only palatal ś as the representative of the three sibilants and e occurs in place of nominative singular of a-stem. But the hard letters do not act as soft, such as, bhoti and the intervocalic soft consonants, on the other hand, donot undergo to elisoin, for example : kumudagandha. Frequent use of n rather than ņ (eg. kalaná), presence of the full from
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