CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF THE USE OF SANSKRIT n
apply to them to find the correct form of such terms as prsodara, which do not fall under the ordinary rules of grammar. The Cistas are further defined as Brahmins of Aryavarta, the region south of the Himalayas, north of Pariyatra, east of the Adarca, west of the Kalakavana, who are not greedy, who do good dis- interestedly, and who store only so much grain as a pot can hold. Other persons may make errors ; thus they may pro- nounce sasa for gaga, palasa for palaga, manjaka for tnancaka ; or they may commit graver errors by using incorrect forms {apagabdd) such as kasi for krsi, disi for drgi, gavi, goni, gota, gopotalika for gaits, or even verbal forms such as anapayati x for ajnapayati, vattati for vartate, and vaddhati for vardhate. But from the Cistas they could acquire the accurate forms. This suggests a close parallel to modern conditions in England, where an upper educated class sets the norm to all those in lower social classes ; the speech of that class is clearly a living language, and Sanskrit was so in much the same sense. The standard com- parison of Latin in the Middle Ages is somewhat unsatisfactory ; in the earlier period of the use of Sanskrit it is clear that it was much more closely similar to the speech of the lower classes in its numerous varieties than was Latin in medieval Europe. Comparison of Sanskrit with the dialects of the inscriptions of Acoka is significant in this regard ; their differences are not essential nor such as to hinder mutual comprehension, and could easily be paralleled in English speech to-day.
Moreover, the conclusions thus attained are directly supported by the evidence of the drama, in which Brahmins and kings and other persons of high station and education use Sanskrit, while inferior characters employ some form of Prakrit. It has been attempted to argue against this view on the score that the drama was originally in Prakrit; and that Sanskiit was introduced only when it became essentially the general language of culture. But this contention ignores the fact that on one side at least the drama is closely connected with the epic in Sanskrit ; Bhasa, indeed, has one drama without Prakrit, and there is little of it in his other dramas based on the epic. Nor was the Sanskrit
1 So A^ka's Brahmagiri inscr. I ; vafoati (the usual single consonant is merely graphic ; CII. i, p. lix ; Grierson's argument (JRAS. 1925, p 228) from the writing of other conjuncts is clearly untenable) occurs in Delhi-Topra, iv. 20.
