﻿AND PRACRIT LAN«UAGES. !219 



tavies by Helara.ia and Puxjaraja, was probably 

 in use \vith asdiool that once tioiiiished at Ujjaylni: 

 but it does not seem to be now generally studied iii 

 any part of India. 



The second class of Indian languages compre- 

 hends the written dialects whicii are now used in the 

 intercourse of civil life, and which are cultivated by 

 lettered iiicn. The author of a passage already 

 quoted includes all such dialects under the general 

 denomination of Pracr'U : but tins term is com- 

 monly restricted to one language, namely to the 

 Sarasivati hala hlmi, or the speech of children on the 

 banks of the Sai^asxvati*. Tiiere is reason to believe 

 that ten polished dialects formerly |:revailed in as 

 many different civilized nations, who occupied all 

 the fertile provinces of Hindustan and the Dekhin. 

 Evident traces of them still exist. Th{'y shall be 

 jioticed in the order in which these Hindu nations 

 are usually enumerated. 



The Sdrtsicata was a nation which occupied the 

 banks of the river Saraswati. Brakmanas \v\\o ^hxq 

 still distinguished l)y the name of their nation, in- 

 habit chiefly the Penjab or Fauchanada, west of the 

 rivcF from which they take their appellation. Their 

 original language may have once ])revailed tlnough 

 the southern and westein parts of HindiiHtun proper, 

 and is probably the idiom to Vv'hich the name of 

 Pracrit is generally appropriated. This has been 

 more cultivated than any other among the dialects 

 which will be here enumerated, and it occupies a 

 principal place in the dialogue of most dramas. 

 Many beautiful poems composed wholly in this lan- 

 guage, or intermixed with stanzas of pure Sanscrit^ 

 have perpetuated the memory of it, tlu)ugh perhaps 

 it have long ceased to be a vernacular tongue. 

 Grannnars have been compiled for the purpose of 

 teaching this language and its prosody, and several 



treatises 



* The term will bear a different interpretation : but this seems to 

 be the most probable explanation of it. The other (youthful speech 

 of Saraswati) is generally received. 



