रत्नावली नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - शास्त्रीय नाटिका रत्न सम्पूर्ण ४ अङ्क सान्वय सटीक)

458 रत्नावली
“The Nátyashastra gives seven different Prakrits as in use..
Shauraseni is the speech of the land between the Yamuná
and Gangá or Doab ; it is to be used ly the
Dialects ladies of the play, their friends and servants,
generally by ladies of good family and many
men of the middle class. Prácyá is assigned to to the Vidu-
shaka, but in fact he speaks practically Shauraseni, and there-
fore the term can only denote an eastern Shauraseni dialect,
...Maháráshtri is unknown to the Shástra ; it is assigned to
the verses of persons who use Shaurasni, by Dasharupa, while
the Sanskrit Drama limits it to the verses of women.......
Mágadhi ..is ascribed to all those men who live in the women’s
appartments ......
The addition of Cháyás or translation in Sanskrit to explain
the Prakrit, is normal in the manuscripts of the dramas and
it is certain that it is old, for it is alluded
Chá'ya' to by Rájashekhara in his Bálarámáyana.
Evidently even so early as A. D 900, there
was no public who cared for Prakrit without a Sanskrit
explanation” (Keith, Sanskrit Drama, P. 337).
The name of the Nátiká is generally in accordance with
that of the heroine—“नाटिकासट्टकादीनां नायिका-
Name of the
Nátiká निर्विशेषणम्” (साः दः ६।१४९). The acts are normally
simply membered ; in some cases names are
also given, “doubtless not by the poet”—as Prof. Keith
thinks.