[Query] Was Sanskrit ever spoken by "all"?

[Sreenivas Paruchuri]

Greetings!

I have a couple of questions on the evolution of language(s) in todays India.

a) Was Sanskrit spoken by the common folk also in olden days? I mean other
than the priests and the elite (?) in the society?

b) If not, what did the common folk speak?

Could you pl. recommend me some monographs/publications on this subject!

Herzlichen Dank!

mit freundlichen Gruessen,
Sreenivas


> From Peter at pwyz.rhein.de 21 1996 Feb +0100 09:05:00
Date: 21 Feb 1996 09:05:00 +0100
From: Peter at pwyz.rhein.de (Peter Wyzlic)
Subject: Re: Sari in skt litterature
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Hello mmdesh,

In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.960220094015.16318B-100000 at tempest.rs.itd.umich.edu>
you wrote about "Re: Sari in skt litterature":

>The modern word 'sari' is linguistically linked to the relatively
>late Sanskrit words 'sh(palatal s)aaTikaa' and 'shaaTii'.  Relatives of
>this word appear in Marathi word 'chaaTii'.  These words are generally
>used for a wrap-around cloth used by ascetics.
>	Madhav Deshpande

Only for clarification, what means "late" in this context? I have found  
the lemma "zaaTii-paTTika" in the Paniniya-Ganapatha (gana:  
gavaazvaprabhRtiini to P. 2.4.11) in Pathak/Chitrao: Word index to Panini- 
Sutra-Patha; I have Boehtlingk's edition not here. Other composita there  
are "zaaTii-paTiira" and "zaatii-pracchada".

Katyayana knows a word "zaaTaka" in a Varttika zu P. 1.1.36.

\bye
Peter Wyzlic

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