of an extensive territory from the Narmada to the Krishna and sometimes included the southern part of the modern Bombay Presidency and Hyderabad. It lay just south of the Sauraseni and together with the Maharashtri had the greatest influence on the South Indian languages. The rest of the languages in the order of their importance are the Magadhi, the language of Magadha, but once extending far beyond that country, the Paisaci with its two varieties and and Apabhramsa. Besides these which are generally mentioned by the grammarians, there are the Prakrits of the Jain Canonical works, namely Ardha Magadhi, Jain Maharashtri and Jain Sauraseni.
The cultivated Prakrits remained in books and were systematised and reduced to strict rules by the grammarians, but the language of the people went on changing giving rise to various Apabhramsa dialects. In
