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TULASI-PRAJNA, June, 1990
It is also evident from the above that the speakers of Magadhi vary from text to text, though one, it seems, has followed the other. In summing up their discussions we can say that Magadhi is spoken by the people of inner appartment of the king, fishermen, menials, dwarfs, diggers of the underground passages. Magadhi of such like people have been refracted through the sanskrit dramas. Bharata established Magadhi as the language of the people of kings inner appartment and he did not mention it as the language of lower-class people. Muniśvar Jha" is of opinion that most of the bards and court singers were of Magadha in the past. So Magadhi can not be designated only as the language of lower class people. He further says that Magadhi and the people of Magadha were neglected in the Vedic era. Atharva-veda declares that the people of Magadha were the source of malarial fever. In the Satapatha-Brāhmaṇa the pracyās (easterners) are described as asuras (demons). The Magadhas (people of Magadha) might be counted on that point only in the Sankhāyana-Araṇyaka, a Brāhmaṇa was praised enthusiastically. Oldenburg remarks that this type of praise is unusual. Macdonell and Keith support this view.
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Jha has further raised the question why Magadhi or the people of Magadha have been neglected through out the Vedic era. He has mentioned several causes for this:
(i)
According to Oldenburg, the Magadhas were not Brāhmaṇised in that period.
(ii) Fick thinks that the western Brahmins dislike the eastern Brahmins as they are Brāhmaṇised or partly Brāhmaṇised in later period and so the Brahmins and Priests were neglected by them.
(iii) Any body can guess that the people of Magadha were of the zone of Vedic civilisation. That is to say, on that context, that the Vedic-civilisation and culture have been spread on the western and central India. So the people of Magadha could consider themselves as the owners of Vedic culture in a few.
(iv) J. Bloch accounts that the fall of Maurya-dynasty is the most possible cause of fading the Magadhi and thus the western prakrits come to the eminence simultaneously.
In the Pratijha-yougandharāyana and Carudatta some Magadhi passages are found.
Bhāsa declares that Magadhi is the language of those persons who are lower in social status.
In the Mrcchakatik Magadhi has been spoken by so many chara
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