नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

332	THE NATYASASTRA	[ XVIII. 50-

50. Prācyā is the language of the Jester¹ and the like ; and Āvanti is of the rogues (dhūrta)². The Heroines, and their female friends are also to speak Śaurasenī when not in any difficulty.

51. To soldiers, gamesters, police chief of the city and the like should be assigned Dākṣiṇātyā¹, and Bāhlīkī is the native speech of the Khasas who belong to the north,

Uses of minor dialects

52. Śākarī should be assigned to the Śakāra and the Śakas and other groups of the same nature¹, and Cāṇḍālī to the Pulkasas and the like.²

53. To charcoal-makers, hunters and those who earn their

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Rajputs (rājaputra) and leaders of merchants' guild (śreṣṭhi). See Grammatik § 17. But no extant drama seems to illustrate this rule. For Candanadāsa who is a śreṣṭhi, does not speak AMg. (Mudrā, I) while Indra in the disguise of a Brahmin speaks this dialect of Pkt. (Karṇa. ascribed to Bhāsa).

50 (C.48b-49; B.XVII.52). ¹ According to Pṛthvīdhara Viduṣaka in the Mṛcch. speaks Prācyā the sole characteristic of which is abundance of pleonastic ka. See Pischel, Grammatik, Grammatik, § 22.

² C. yojyā bhāṣā for dhūrtānām apy. According to Pṛthvīdhara the the two policemen Vīraka and Candanaka in the Mṛcch. (VI.) speak Āvanti. But according to the latter's own admission he was a Southerner and a man of Karṇāṭa. No old and authentic description of this dialect is available, see Pischel, Grammatik § 26.

51 (C.49b-50a: B.XVII.53). ¹ Candanaka's language in Mṛcch. in spite of Pṛthvīdhara's testimony to the contrary may be taken as a specimen of Dākṣiṇātyā. See 50 note 2 above. No old and authentic description of this dialect is available. Cf. Pischel, Grammatik § 24.

52 (C.50b-51a; B.XVII.54). ¹ śakārāṇām śakādīnām for śakāraghoṣakādīnām (B.), and śabarāṇām śakādīnām (C). According to Pṛthvīdhara Śakāra in Mṛcch. speaks Śākarī dialect. Cf. Pischel, Grammatik, § 24.

² Pṛthvīdhara thinks that Caṇḍālas in Mṛcch (V.) speak the Cāṇḍālī dialect. Cf. Pischel, Grammatik, § 25.

·53 (C.51b-52a; B.XVII.55). ¹ B. śakāra-bhāṣa for śabara-bhāṣā. This dialect seems to have been the parent of the modern Sora language.