Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s12.10

c12.s12.10

Epigraphical evidence from the 4th century B.C. shows that in Magadha had appeared a local form of this Eastern Prākṛit which deviated in two of its sounds from what may be called the standard Prācya or Eastern Prākṛit; it had palatal ś for the dental s of the latter (<ś, sh, s of old Indo-Aryan), and probably it had developed a palatalised ky from k after a palatal vowel. This specialised Magadhan form of Prācya was in all likelihood current among the masses of the people, of less exalted ranks, and the ś pronunciation was evidently looked upon as something vulgar and uneducated, judging from the fact than in later times in the Sanskrit drama the ś dialect was relegated to the least exalted characters.