Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c8.s1.t5.4

c8.s1.t5.4

The literary Prakrits also occur in the inscriptional dramas (see 4.1.8 and 7.2.2.2.2), where they play their usual role as the language spoken by the lesser characters; thus we find specimens of Māhārāṣṭrī and Śaurasenī in the *Pārijātamañjarī-nāṭikā* at Dhār and the *Harakeli-nāṭaka* at Ajmer, and of these dialects plus Māgadhī in the *Lalitavigraharāja-nāṭaka*, also from Ajmer. Occasionally a Prakrit verse is also included in an ordinary Sanskrit inscription, for instance, verse 12 (in Māhārāṣṭrī) of the Vārāṇasī copper plate inscription of Karṇa (SI II.340).²⁸