नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

-XVIII. 30 ] RULES ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES 327

The Superhuman and the Noble Languages

27. The Super-human Language is for the gods, and the Noble language for the kings¹. These have the quality of refinement² (saṃskāra) and are current over the seven great divisions³ (dvīpa) of the world.

The Common Language

28. The Common Language prescribed for use [on the stage] has various forms¹. It contains [many] words of Barbarian (mleccha) origin and is spoken in Bhārata-varṣa [only]².

The Animal Language

29. The Language of Other Animals¹ have their origin in animals domestic or wild and in birds of various species, and it follows the Conventional Parctice (nāṭya-dharmī).

Two kinds of Recitation

30. The Recitation in the Common language which relates to the four castes, is of two kinds, viz, vulgar (prākṛta) and refined (saṃskṛta).

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27 (C.26b-27a; B.XVII.28b-29a). ¹ The atibhāṣā and āryabhāṣā are possibly the dialects of the pure Indo-Aryan speech. It should be noted that "saṃskṛta" (Sanskrit) as the name of a language is absent here. Bhoja takes ati-, ārya- and jāti- bhāṣas respectively as śrauta (Vedic), ārṣa (Puranic) and laukika (literary) speeches. See Śr. Pr. pp.191ff.

² Read saṃskāraguṇa for saṃskāra-pāṭhya (the ms. bha in B.).

³ Read saptadvīpa-pratiṣṭhitā for samyannῡya pratiṣṭhitā (the ms. bha in B.).

28 (C.26b-27a; B.XVII.29b-30a). ¹ Read vividha-jātibhāṣā ; vividha (ca, da in B.) for dvividha.

² The common speech or the speech of the commoners is distinguished here from that of the priests and the nobility by describing it as containing words of Barbarian (mleccha) origin. These words seem to have been none other than vocables of the Dravidian and Austric languages. They entered Indo-Aryan pretty early in its history. See S. K. Chatterji, Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, Calcutta, 1926 pp. 42,178.

29 (C.27b-29a; B.XVII.30b-31a). ¹ Neither the NŚ. nor any extant drama gives us any specimen of the conventional language of lower animals, which is to be used in the stage.

30 (C.28b-29a; B.XVII.31b-32a).