Similarly another religious sect, the Jains, have used the Maharashtri Prakrit as the medium for expressing the tenets of their belief. There are also some poems in other Prakrit dialects.
Without going into details, which would be out of place here, it may be stated in a general way that the scenic Prakrit and that of the poems differ from Sanskrit more particularly in the omission of single consonants, and that this omission is carried to such an extent as to render one half or more of the words used unintelligible and unrecognizable; whereas in the religious works this practice, although it exists, is not allowed to run to such an extreme. As this subject will be reverted to further on, it need not be more than touched on here. It may be added that all the Prakrits are, like the Sanskrit, synthetical or inflectional languages.[1]
§ 3. Next comes the class of words described as neither Sanskritic nor Aryan, but x. It is known that on entering India the Aryans found that country occupied by races of a different family from their own. With these races they waged a long and chequered warfare, gradually pushing on after each fresh victory, till at the end of many centuries they obtained possession of the greater part of the territories they now enjoy. Through these long ages, periods of peace alternated with those of war, and the contact between the two races may have been as often friendly as hostile. The Aryans exercised a powerful influence upon their opponents, and we cannot doubt but that they themselves were also, but in a less degree, subject to some influence from them. There are consequently to be found even in Sanskrit some words which have a very un-Aryan look, and
- ↑ Lest it should be objected that this description of the Prakrits is too brief and seanty, I must remind the reader again that our business is with the modern languages only, and that the subject of Prakrit, though frequently introduced for the sake of completing the range of view, is after all quite secondary throughout.
