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INTRODUCTION
Rājasekharas, it only means that he stands up to complain against the general tendency of his age. Deep-rooted as the dramatic conventions were, the Prakrits were being introduced in their plays by post-mediaeval authors both in the North and in the South; but the whole performance of their Prakrit composition was a prosaic affair. These authors studied some Prakrit grammar or the other and managed to compose in Prakrit. By the time of Mahānāṭaka or Hanūmānnāṭaka, Prakrit lost its conventional ground in the Sanskrit plays.
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The Prakrits in the drama are much stereotyped, and for obvious reasons they do not show any linguistic evolution as such. The texts were composed by authors who were masters of Sanskrit language. These passages remained side by side with Sanskrit passages giving an opportunity for the copyist to contaminate the Prakrit passages by constant Sanskrit influence. Originally Mss. of the texts of plays without Chāyā might have been there, and even now we come across Mss. which do not give any Chaya;" but by the time of Rajasekhara the practice of adding the Sanskrit Chāyā had come into vogue. 12 All this meant that the Prakrit language and style were cultivated by the play-wrights constantly in the back-ground and under the influence of classical Sanskrit.
The above details have been stated merely to indicate that the Prakrit language of Kamsavaho and Usāṇiruddhaṁ requires to be estimated in the light of the so-called dramatic Prakrits. After a detailed study of the language of Kamsavaho I have arrived at the following conclusion: To conclude, the above facts indicate that Rāma Pāņivāda mainly follows Vararuci's Sūtras, especially the first nine chapters, with the
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