Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c8.8

c8.8

The religious books of the Jainas form another very extensive branch of Prâkṛit literature. Prof. Weber thinks the language of these to be later than the Pâli and earlier than the Prâkṛits, so as to occupy a middle position, and calls it Jaina-Mâgadhî. But Hemachandra himself, who must have known his religious books well, and was, as I have observed, a great Prâkṛit scholar, treats it as the principal Prâkṛit or Mahârâshṭrî, and in his grammar of this he in several places gives forms of words peculiar to his sacred language, which after the example of his Brahmanic brothers he calls Ârsha Prâkṛit². In giv-