The History of Indian Literature c9.11

c9.11

[^asterisk]: And therefore specially so called down even to modern times; whereas the grammatically refined *bháshá* afterwards lost this title, and substituted for it the name *Saṃskṛita-bháshá*, 'the cultivated speech.' The name *Prákṛita-bháshá*, which was at the same time applied to the popular dialects, is derived from the word *prakṛiti*, 'nature,' 'origin,' and probably describes these as the 'natural,' 'original' continuations of the ancient *bháshá*: or does *prákṛita* here signify 'having a *prakṛiti* or origin,' *i.e.*, 'derived'? [Out of the signification 'original,' 'lying at the root of' (*prakṛiti-bhúta*), 'unmodified,' arose that of 'normal,' then that of 'ordinary,' '*communis*,' '*vulgaris*,' and lastly, that of 'proceeding in common from.' The term directly opposed to it is not *saṃskṛita*, but *vaikṛita*; see, *e.g.*, Ath. Pariś. 49. 1, "*varṇán púrvaṃ vyákhyásyámaḥ prákṛitá ye cha vaikṛitáḥ.*"] The earliest instances as yet known of the name *Saṃskṛit* as a designation of the language occur in the Mṛichhakaṭí (p. 44. 2, ed. Stenzler), and in Varáha-Mihira's Bṛihat-Saṃhitá, 85. 3. The following passages also of the Rámáyaṇa are doubtless to be understood in this sense, viz., v. 18. 19, 29. 17, 34 (82. 3), vi. 104. 2. Páṇini is familiar with the word *Saṃskṛita*, but does not use it in this sense; though the Páṇiníyá-Śikshá does so employ it (v. 3), in contradistinction to *prákṛita*.