Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c12.72.2

c12.72.2

Though the Pâli or an idiom very close to it was the language of the uneducated classes in the times of Kâtyâyana, Aśoka, and Patañjali, still its formation must be dated some centuries earlier, since in its verb it represents what I have called Middle Sanskrit or Sanskrit of Yâska and Pâṇini. Yâska notices local varieties of Sanskrit words, and gives one or two instances, but makes no allusion to any apabhraṁśas or corruptions, though from the nature of his work he may be expected to do so; while Kâtyâyana and Patañjali mention them frequently, as we have seen. Even if they existed in his time, therefore, they must have been insignificant and unimportant, and did not enter into the speech of any class of the Aryan society to any appreciable extent. After his time, however, i. e. about the seventh or sixth century B. C., the elaboration of the Pâli, or low Sanskrit as it might be called, began in a decided manner; and the language continued to be spoken up to the time of Patañjali. Till then it did not specifically assume a Prâkṛit form, though in the inscriptions of Aśoka some of the characteristics of a later Prâkṛit, the Mâgadhî, were developed, as we have seen, in one province, very likely Magadha itself. The Prâkṛits must have begun to be formed about that time, but they did not then attain any distinctive character; and the vernacular speech probably did not finally leave the Pâli stage till a very long time afterwards.